Maelstroms Mask
by Kami-no-Yami-666
Summary: There is a systematic truth in all this. We're all broken, hiding behind masks. Oh sure some are lies, others are just words, but this mask... This mask, is entirely me. Now, let me show you the man behind... the mask... [Pairing: Complicated] (AU, slight OC. Die hard's of normal Naruto STAY AWAY.)
1. Chapter 1

**Maelstroms Mask**

 **(KY zip lines into the picture)** **Hey all you lovely readers, it's K.Y. here with another story and it's a story inspired from playing you guessed it Arkham Knight turning it into a crossover. How it is well, you know the drill. Read and find out why, also big old top hat off to Jebest4781 for his insight and idea of the story. Without him I wouldn't have been able to get this little gem off the piece of paper, so I thank you man.**

 **(Jebest waves) Why thank you and glad to be of help.**

 **KY: Now a little warning this isn't going to be a conventional Naruto, oh no. He's going to be different just like all my other stories so if you are just starting this and have seen how I write my stories and don't like a non-canon Naruto then please exit this story cause your just going to find a Naruto completely different from the creators version. (Points to the exit)**

 **J: Also with what we are doing here for the story we will try to blend things as much as possible with what source materials we will plan on using to blend certain series and whatnot. So bear with us with most things not following entirely with certain events. Any altercations will be for our doing to be sure that this story goes well.**

 **KY: Now, lets get going shall we? On with the feud... Err, I mean story! (Throws smoke bomb onto the ground but realizes it's a dud.)**

 **J: Dude just...just go. (KY walks off with his head hanged low with J following shortly after)**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or Batman.**

 **Chapter 1: Just a Regular Guard Shift**

* * *

 **12:00 A.M., Monday, January 11, 1987**

There was always a time of mourning, a time of loss around the world. When the heavens cry, flooding the earth with its endless sorrow as loved ones perish before their precious ones. The skies dark and bleak, chilling all occupants drawn under its shadow.

The procession under this dark day were dressed as one would expect for such an occasion, wearing all black holding umbrellas overhead to protect them from the world's tears. All mourners were gathered around two tombstones.

"Here lies Minato and Kushina Namikaze, beloved friends and parents." A child read in a shuddering whisper, tears falling as he looked upon their graves. Their caskets slowly being lowered into their graves. The ten year-old blonde could only close his eyes as more tears threatened to fall as he witnessed the two most important people of his little world disappear under the cold, cold earth.

He couldn't breathe, a pocket of raw emotion clogging his airways as all he could do was fold his legs into his chest and wrap his arms around them. Blue tear filled eyes could not look away from the graves as the priest ended the sermon, just as lightning struck illuminating the faces of all the mourners.

The young blonde closed his eyes and sobbed, sobbed for his loss.

For his sadness... Was insurmountable at that moment..

 **XXXXXX**

 **7:00 P.M., Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

Snow fell in large flakes, covering all under its cold embrace. Gotham was a regular gaggle of activity as cars honked and screeched across the roads, citizens cursed and yelled at one another.

A regular snowy evening for the locals.

Yet, we set our sights on a not so normal sight. The sight, of Blackgate Penitentiary and its occupants...

Boots clacked down the hall as inmates looked upon the uniformed man, leering and hollering from their cells as they reached out to strangle the blonde. The Gotham Police Department body armor further enraging them as they hollered and snarled at the man. The man cut a rather impressive figure standing at an impressive 5'11, his form filled with muscles streamlined for speed and strength, and piercing blue eyes that made every inmate flinch and look away from his gaze as he held the AR-15 in his hands threateningly. Dressed in all black from his jacket, to his pants to his boots the man cut an intimidating picture indeed.

Walking across the hall of inmate cells Naruto could only smile slightly as he got to the break room, seeing his friend waiting for him.

"Heeeeeyyy Naru~ Where have yah been? I was getting a little worried." Said friend spoke as she was digging into her meal.

"I was just held up by Mathews, Harl, don't get so upset." Naruto chuckled at his friends pout. Harleen Quinzel, a rising star in the psychological world, and his childhood friend could only be described as the antithesis of the typical blonde. Graduating at the top of her class in highschool as well as her college with a Master's degree in Psychology the blonde woman was quite the intellectual individual. For the most part she was a good natured woman, excitable at times but serious when it came to her job. And somehow she was able to land a job as the head Psychologist of Blackgate, just as Naruto was assigned to the Penitentiary for guard duty.

Taking a seat across from her Naruto couldn't help but look over his friend. At 5'7 the twenty three year old blonde woman was quite the looker, golden hair tied into a short ponytail framing her beautiful face, blue eyes shined with warmth as ruby red lips grew into a friendly smile. Following down her slim neck a white jacket wrapped around her C-cup breasts, a small break in the middle exposed her black shirt underneath. Finally to her lower half was a short black skirt covering firm rear and going down her long, luscious, lightly tanned legs a pair of red high heels covered her feet.

"Well I won't be to upset if you eat the lunch I made for you. And put the gun away, I would feel a little better if it wasn't almost in my general direction." Naruto shrugged, putting his weapon over his shoulder and onto his back as he took the brown bag offered by Harley.

"Tuna again, huh?" He muttered, munching into the sandwich as Harley smiled seeing her friend enjoy her meal especially made for him. While it wasn't ramen like he would of liked tuna was much more healthy for the man.

"Mhm, you need to eat a bit more healthy Naru. You're supposed to be a big, strong police officer. You can't protect people on ramen and coffee you know." She pointed to him with a fork, dipping it into a plastic container of spaghetti.

He rolled his eyes, "Harl, I don't only eat ramen and drink coffe. Just on occasion is all."

"By occasion, do you mean breakfast and lunch but not dinner?" She smirked as she playfully jabbed at him with her words.

"Like your one to talk with your little sweets addiction." She blushed lightly at that and huffed, taking a large bite out of her spaghetti.

"Hmph, it's not... My fault that they are so tasty... and delicious. I can't help it." She said between swallows of food.

"It's funny that a Psychologist can't help a behavioral anomaly such as addiction. Aren't you supposed to be able to cure that?" She just glared at him and flicked a meatball at him, to which he promptly ducked the meaty projectile.

"I can cure my own affliction, thank you very much. I just... choose not to." She finished lamely, looking away from him as he smiled.

"I'll be sure to tell Pam to hide the sweets next time you visit then since you can't control yourself when it comes such things." Harley seemed to grow a little guarded once he mentioned his girlfriend, not that he noticed unfortunately. Our male blonde wasn't that good with reading women sadly, hence missing the slight tensing from the blonde woman.

"Whatever, lets just forget about our little guilty pleasures for a sec, m'kay?" He nodded, letting it go for now.

"Alright, alright. What do you want to talk about then?" She hummed, stirring up her pasta in thought.

"Well... How are you and Ms. Isley doing? You've been dating for a year now..." She asked, a slight edge in her voice when she talked about Pamela Isley. A hint of jealousy perhaps, even if she was friends with the redheaded Botanical Scientist.

Naruto smiled, "We're doing pretty good. Been spending a lot more time together and she's really been opening up lately. You know how hard that is for her given her track record. Anyway she told me a bit of her time growing up in Seattle and all the plants she used to raise, compared to the plants that she raises now in her greenhouse." He recounted, not seeing Harley stab a bit too forcefully into her spaghetti as he recounted how close him and Pamela were getting.

"Right, her dad's abuse and her mother's death would leave a bit of psychological trauma that would induce a dash of paranoia and trust issues with such a situation." The doctor sighed, blinking as she noticed that she made her meal into mush from her furious stabs and just played it off as Naruto looked to her slightly. Completely masking her mistake and gesturing for him to continue.

"Yeah, that was-"

"Heh, the rookies taking an early break. That's a shocker." A snide, nasally voice quipped. Looking slightly over his shoulder Naruto couldn't hold back a glare that came over his eyes as two guards passed him and Harley.

"What do you expect? The guy is straight out of the Academy at the top of his class, course he's a little arrogant. Think he's hot shit, when in reality he ain't. Can't believe the Commissioner even allowed this guy to be trusted with any duty let alone guard duty. They should've just stuck him at a desk." The other guard chuckled with his friend as they left the break area. Naruto grit his teeth, slowly starting to get up only to be pulled down by a smaller hand on his. Following the appendage he saw Harley looking to him and shaking her head in disapproval.

"Harl.." He started only to be silenced with a look.

"No, Naru. Don't even think about it. They're not worth it." He sighed and nodded his head, knowing she was right but didn't like it one bit. They finished their meal in silence with Naruto's thoughts shifting back to the two guards comments. It's been like that since he has gotten the guard position a few months ago. The people seemed to think that just because he got out of the Academy with top marks he would be an arrogant cop, which he wasn't. Did he know that he had a high set of skills? Yes, but he didn't lord it over the others. Yet, that seemed to not make him humble but make him stand out as a prick to others with his usual silence. People seemed to be stupid when they didn't understand someone.

"I'll see you later Harl, gotta call Paula soon. If she doesn't get at least three calls of me making sure I'm coming for the holidays she'll have my head." Harley giggled at that, knowing how the woman could get when her adopted brother didn't come for the holidays. A family friend to the Namikaze's, Paula Nguyen adopted Naruto as soon as she was able too. The woman was a caring individual, just the type of person Naruto needed to get past the departure of his parents from the land of the living. Naruto thought of Paula as the older sister he never had and loved her to bits.

"Heehee~ I swear your sister is such a doting mother hen when it comes to you." Naruto just smiled at that, since it was pretty much true. She did worry about him, even if he wasn't really doing anything inherently dangerous at the moment.

"Yeah she is, doesn't mean I don't love her any less for it." He waved goodbye to Harley and walked out of the break room. Walking through the corridors of the prison he found a quiet spot, a window overlooking Gotham with no one in sight down the corridor. Pulling out his phone he dialed his sister and waited for her to pick up.

 _"Hello?"_ A feminine, slightly tired voice rang from his phone.

"Hey Nee-san, It's me." An intake of breathe came from the end of the line.

 _"Naruto?.."_ He chuckled, seems he caught her when she was asleep.

"Hai, Nee-san"

 _"Otou.. Why didn't you call earlier?! It's Christmas Eve for Kami's sake!"_ He cringed, yeah he seemed to catch her when she was asleep. Now granted he did put off this call for two weeks but calling the woman when she was previously asleep as well? Yeah, that didn't help his case at all.

"Eeeehh, I was… Busy you know." He answered hesitantly, getting a huff on the other end of the line.

 _"To busy to call your Onee-san? To busy to miss Christmas with your Godchildren, again?"_ Oh, now that hurt him. He really loved his little nieces, he really did but when he had to juggle a love life, work, a social life, and family…. He got a little scattered.

"Nee-san, of course not. It's just… The thing is… I lost track of time is all. I am coming back home for Christmas though, I promise. So don't tell Arty and Jade that I'm not coming."

 _"You mean it this time?"_ He sighed .

"Yeah, I really mean it Nee-san. I'll see you soon, love you."

 _"I love you to Otou, see you soon."_ He ended the call and dialed his girl. After all he had plans to take her out tonight, he went through great lengths to book a rather exclusive restaurant for their date.

 _"This is Dr. Isley, speak."_ A breathy, seductive voice sounded from his phone making his heart skip a beat and a half.

"Hey Pam, how are you doing?"

 _"I'm doing better now that you called, hon~"_

"That's great to hear, you ready for tonight at nine? I got it all set up, Mon Shiri's, a ride through the park, the whole nine yards."

 _"Mmm, that sounds great~ I've been looking forward to this for weeks. I may just give you a reward if you play your cards right tonight hon~"_ The blonde smiled at that, a bit of excitement going through him at her whisper through the phone.

"Then I'll make sure tonight is the best night of your life Pam. See you then, love you."

 _"Love you to hon~"_ Ending the call Naruto couldn't keep the smile on his face from growing as he whistled down the corridor, now in high spirits. Nothing could ruin this night, nothing at all.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Whipping his head around he could see the flashing lights of the red alarms of the prison. Explosions went off in the distance as screams of inmates rang out from their cells, shaking the bars of their cells in excitement as the alarms could only mean one thing.

Someone was breaking out of prison.

"Shit." He cursed, just as the main doors of the prison blew apart from an explosive. Multiple people in masks came running through the smoke with guns hoisted as he dove into cover of the side corridor to the main corridor where the men were coming from.

Pulling his AR-15 from his back he loaded a clip and locked the bolt of his weapon just as the intruders came into range.

"Just another regular guard shift…" He grunted. Well, tonight he was screwed.

 **XXXXXX**

 **KY: Done and done. Let it be known that I thoroughly enjoy making such works of fiction, that being new things never done before. After all what's fun about making the same thing someone else has already done when you can make something truly innovative.**

 **So, yeah Naruto is a cop at the beginning of the story. Didn't see that coming did you?**

 **(Dodges a potato from the audience) Hey wow, wow calm down! I told you that he would be different!**

 **J: Yeah it is, both me and KY put a lot of thought into this so be patient since this will be a very, very long process people.**

 **KY: That's right, we have a lot of material that we have planned for the story so it's going to be long. But trust us, it's going to be awesome!**

 **J: Research will kill us all man! There is so much research to go through! (looks around the audience of readers) What its true, research will be a pain but we will pull through.**

 **KY: (Pats J's shoulder) That's right man, we will pull through. Because we will face the challenge and create something the readers will enjoy! (Points to the audience) Guaranteed people!**

 **J: Now have a good one and please leave a review. It will fuel us greatly. Of course any flames at all will just be tossed into the fire to fuel the machinery and vehicles in the story.**

 **KY: Mhm, that or my mother-in-laws insatiable love for steaks. May she keel over from the flame steaks!**

 **J: That too. Anyways later people. (Pulls out a grappling hook and points it randomly into the sky and flies off)**

 **KY: Later people, until next time. (Jumps into the Batmobile and leaves in a flash)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Maelstroms Mask**

 **(KY Flips into the picture) Hello all ye who have entered into this chapter! I am your humble KY coming at you with another chapter of Maelstroms Mask. As always Jebest4781 and I are happy to present another chapter of our story. So without any further ado lets get this thing going!**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or Batman.**

 **Chapter 2: Hunting a Predator**

 **XXXXX**

 **2:00 P.M., March 5, 1995**

 **Northern Iraqi Province**

 **Operation: Provide Comfort**

 **XXXXXX**

"... And so I said, that isn't a M16. That's my dick!" Raucous laughter filled the motor movement as US soldiers cracked jokes and cursed to deal with the deployment.

Ignoring his brother in arms Naruto just choked up on his M4, looking over the expanse of sand and wind that was the Iraqi desert. Coming here right after his training for combat and survival was complete... was a rather large pill to swallow. Sure the Iraqi forces have mellowed over the years and there was talk through the brass that they may go back home next year but there was still attacks on the Kurds they were guarding as well as the territory. Currently they were moving to expand the relief zone for the rather displaced Kurds from the dictator that was Saddam Hussein.

"Nguyen, what the hell are you thinking man?" The driver of the Humvee he was currently in asked him, his eyes firmly on the road.

"Just... A lot of nothing really. Everything, shit.. Sorry just trying to keep my wits about me." He stumbled in his answer, trying to think. He was new to this, anywhere they went it was hostile so he was always alert. Had a case of combat jitters, a common thing for first time deployers.

The driver chuckled, "Relax man. Were in the largest motor movement this side of the Haji playground. If someone tries anything they're going to get torn a new asshole."

"Your right Richards, I'm just paranoid is all. Anything can happen around here." Richards nodded to that, turning as the Humvee in front did. Richards was a rather skinny individual, for the military, and had that face that you couldn't really remember. Yet he was still a good friend to the young blonde and he couldn't be more grateful to have him as a friend.

"Yeah, you never really know what can happen. Oh, speaking of anything can happen; did you hear about Ryan? Seems the poor bastard went to a porta-shitter and got himself blown up."

"What? How the hell did Iraqis place a bomb in a shitter?" Naruto questioned, making a slight disgusted face as his mind began thinking of how they got it in there.

"Probably jumped down in there, planted the bomb and hauled ass. I wouldn't put it past them, they don't really care where they put the bombs in the first place so why not the shitter?"

"Man, now I can't even take a shit without thinking of bombs. Thanks Richards, I really needed that to calm myself." The blonde glared to his friend, getting a smirk back for his troubles.

"Hahaha, what are friends for man if I can't scare you just a bit? Just relax and put on your big girl panties, nothing's going to happen. I promise." Naruto just flipped him off for the panties comment and looked out the window.

"You sir are a dick, the biggest of dicks." He scoffed, Richards smirk growing larger now.

"Thank you, I do say I am one of the best dicks around. Nice to finally have recognition for my dick." Richards smirked, getting a groan from his friend for the comments stupidity.

Naruto sent a side glance to him, unamused. "Why the hell am I friends with you again?"

"Don't question it man. You need someone to keep your smart little head straight and distracted." The brunette waved him off. A few curses rang out in front of them but they ignored it as it didn't seem out of the ordinary.

"You'll never let my test results go, will you? I told you that I studied, that's all." Naruto pointed out, since he did study for the test to enter the military. When he received the results he got the highest scores you could possibly get, putting him on the radar of a few of the brass in their current Company when he was transferred over to Iraq.

"Bullshit, you are a smart motherfucker and don't you forget it." He pointed to him in emphasis of his point. Chuckling he went into a fit of laughter again getting a questioning look from Naruto.

The cursing grew louder, voices raising as the vehicles movements began to slow. Something was going on in the front it seems but again they ignored it as it was a common occurrence.

"What's so funny now?" Richards just laughed some more pointing over to the blonde.

"See, now your not so paranoid and stiff. I think I have accomplished my goal of unknotting your panties." Naruto blinked and looked down to his M4, seeing that his hands weren't gripping it for dear life like he was a few minutes ago.

Sighing he gave a small smile over to his friend, "Alright you did distract me enough to calm down, I'll give you that one Richards."

The teen pumped his fist in victory, "Fuck yeah I did! Now it's just smooth sailing from here."

Shaking his head at his friends antics Naruto just leaned back into his seat, trying to get comfortable. An explosion sounded far in the front, jarring them from their seats. Soon following the explosion the Humvee jerked and slammed into the one in front of it when it went into a dead stop. This in turn had the effect of them being slammed into by the vehicle behind them, jarring the two friends further from their relaxed moods. The Humvee groaned and bent as it was stuck between the two vehicles and being crushed by the two as the vehicle behind them wasn't stopping for some reason. Bracing himself Naruto looked around to see Richards fighting the airbag that deployed pushing him back against his seat. Bringing out his knife from his pouch on his body armor Naruto cut the airbag letting his friend out of its grasp.

"Shit, thanks Nguyen. Let's get out of here." Naruto nodded to that pulling the latch on the malformed door and slammed himself into it. Falling out of the vehicle Naruto looked back to see their Humvee was now crushed by the large truck behind them. Glaring at the truck he was about to yell at the driver only to see a bullet hole through the glass, the driver hunched over the wheel with a hole in his skull.

 _"Shit that's not good."_ He thought, crouching to the ground to lessen the chance of sight from the shooter.

"Richards, you still kicking?" He called out over to his friend, getting a groan in response.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Fucking jackass man, almost killed us. When I see that guy I'll murder him." He growled, shaking his head as he got up with his weapon in hand.

"Yeah, about that. I don't think you can kill a dead man Richards." He pointed out, getting behind the Humvee with Richards as he looked in the direction the bullet came from if his thoughts were correct from surveying the truck's window. The corpse was leaning against the window to the left of the vehicle, so likely the bullet came from the right of the vehicle entering through the window and slamming into the man's head, killing him instantly.

"What are you talking.. 'Bout... Shit!" He cursed as he saw the dead driver when Naruto pointed up to show him what he meant.

"Yeah that's- Fuck!" Bullets slammed into the metal of the wrecked vehicle, prompting them to duck behind it as gunfire erupted around the area. On the right side of the vehicle Naruto pulled out a mirror, shifting it to see the shooter's position.

"Fuck were pinned! Got any ideas?" His friend asked, firing in the general direction of the attackers and squatting down as the bullets started to come again.

"Working on it, trying to see where they're at." Naruto relayed, squinting his eyes at the mirror as the sun hit it. Adjusting it ever so slightly so as to see the reflection of their attackers. Finally he saw two people with weapons pointed at their position through the mirror.

"Richards, fire at the far right dune closest to Sgt. Anders LMTV. The lowest dune has two shooters... two-hundred meters away I believe.. I'll take the one on the right, you focus on the left." He told him putting the mirror away as he twisted around to the side just as the firing stopped. Pulling his weapon up to his sight Naruto narrowed his eyes, settling his breathing down as his index finger settled on the trigger.

 _"Push everything out... focus on the target... control your breathing... squeeze the trigger... "_ He recited, his vision focusing on the two shooters as time moved at a snails pace. His finger slowly squeezed the trigger, his breath bated as the M4 let loose a single shot from its muzzle. Traveling to the dune in an instant the bullet found a nice home in the shooters brain, making him crumble just as his friend fell from another bullet from Richards. Time sped up again going back to normal for the blonde as his heart beat jumped back to normal, no longer slowed in his sense of whiplash back to reality. He shook his head, stubbing the oncoming headache as he leaned back against the Humvee.

Richards moved back to his cover, "Well they're... Dead. Yeah, they're dead. " He shook his head and gripped his weapon tighter, looking around for any other hostiles. "That, that was.."

"... Easy.. terribly easy..." Naruto muttered, flinching as a cacophony of bullets slammed into their cover again. Looking over the scrapped vehicle to see something that put a large dose of fear into their hearts. Moving towards them was a large gaggle of Iraqi soldiers, more than thirty at least from their quick look over the hunk of metal that was their cover. The military personnel still alive opened fire on them, scattering them as the Iraqis fired back. Their numbers dwindling but somehow replenishing every few minutes as more and more of them came over the sand dunes.

Gritting his teeth Naruto opened fire again, aiming for every possible moving target in his sights as he tore apart any enemy in his wake. Iraqis fell with each bullet, crumbling in a lifeless heap as they were tore apart from the bullets slamming into them.

 _"One... three... five... nine... twelve..."_ He counted, his eyes never leaving the field of bodies as more and more joined the ranks of the dead as his body count grew. A click drew him out of his trance, prompting him to look down to his weapon. Deducing that his magazine was empty, he quickly threw the empty mag and replaced it with a new one. Taking his eyes off of his weapon he saw something that made him stop.

Coming from the opposite dune formations was another gaggle of turbaned attackers. Twenty in total, with all of their sights now directed onto the to two soldiers.

"Goddamnit!" Naruto cursed, lining up the sights of his weapon in a blink of an eye on the leading attacker. His vision swimming slightly as his heart slowed once again as he held his breath, his gaze zoomed slightly now taking in the details of his attacker as his finger was pulling the trigger. His world now muted, slowing...

Slowing...

Till... It was almost at a standstill, with nothing but his trigger finger making a motion. His weapon moving from one target to the next as it fired on each one, his breath stuck in his chest as holes filled each attacker as they didn't react to their deaths. Their eyes showing nothing as they were systematically killed. Vision swam even more, the light playing tricks on him as a shuddering exhale of breath escaped him. His ears now hearing the sounds of blood spilling the sands, screams ripping their way from departing mortal souls as they gurgled and fell to the sands. Their corpses staining the sands crimson as their blood pooled and flowed down to the two soldiers.

 _"How... How did I..."_ His thoughts questioned, his body only answering with a splitting headache and blurred vision. Gripping his head in pain he grit his teeth as the very area around him swam and became fuzzy.

"Gah! My… Head!.." He groaned , falling to his knees as he anchored himself to the sands, his breaths coming out in gasps as fingers curled in pain.

"Nguyen, some cover fire could be good right now!" Richard's voice cut through the haze, bringing Naruto's vision back to clarity as he slowly but surely got back to his feet. Biting his inner cheek the blonde fought through the sudden onslaught of pain as he put himself against the humvee.

 _"It's them or us... Them or us... Them.. or... Us..."_ His eyes dulled, he grit his teeth. Dropping the empty magazine from his weapon he loaded another in its place, and turned his gaze to the last of the attackers. Eyes filled with nothing but a burning flame.

A flame... to survive..

 **XXXXXX**

 **7:25 P.M., Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 _"It's them or me.."_ He thought, blasting a masked thug as the rest opened fire on him.

The alarms blared all around him as the thugs fired on his position. The prison, now under siege by an unknown criminal body, was now a hub for a small war as the police and guards stationed around the penitentiary fought against the masked men. Hopefully they could stand their ground and take care of the malcontent.

Looking from his cover he could see the last five of the thugs taking cover in cells, looking through the bars for their shared target behind the wall..

 _"I can't take the chance of going out there with all of them knowing where I'm at. I'm going to have to take them out one by one by a different route."_ Taking a deep breathe he pulled up his AR-15 and turned back separating into a different corridor as he slowly made his way to one of the cell windows. Through the glass he could see one of the thugs peering past his own cover to where he used to be.

 _"Old glass, cracked and not reinforced for a few decades. With enough applied force it won't be an issue to break, allowing me access to my target."_ Bringing the butt of his rifle back he swung with all his strength at the glass. Shards flew from the force of the attack, taking the masked man off guard giving Naruto the opportunity to send a bullet into his brain, forcing his now dead body to flop to the ground with a thud. Unfortunately this got the attention of his companions around the area, turning their attention to the cell and to Naruto.

Ducking down under the window bullets flew over his head as the attackers opened fire on his position again. Moving past the window Naruto made it to the end of the corridor, turning right into the main hall again as he sidled over to the end of the wall. Peering from the side he could see the last four splitting apart looking around the area for him. Each one going to a far corner of the hall.

Moving a small margin back into the walls radius the policeman waited for the thug to get to his area. When the thug close enough to his line of sight he pulled him away from the eyes of his comrades, his arms capturing him in a chokehold as he cut the airflow from his brain.

"Chkkkhhckkk!..." The man choked, struggling in Naruto's hold.

"Keep quiet, it's almost over." He muttered, finally rendering the man unconscious as he set him against the wall.

Making a quick look around for the others, seeing that they haven't moved from their spots, Naruto made his way over to the thug across from him.

Crouched down he approached the man silently, avoiding debris so as not to make a sound. Finally now a foot away from him he moved in a quick burst of speed, kicking the man's legs from under him and smashing his fist into his skull with all of his weight behind it. Thus the man fell to the ground unconscious, with a busted lip and black eye.

The crack of his skull jolted the other two from their searches, prompting them to turn to see what caused the noise.

"What the hell?"

"The fuck is that?"

Unfortunately for them when they turned all they got was a few bullets fired into their bodies. Jerking from the metal piercing their vitals the two dead men fell to the ground in a heap.

Turning away from the corpses Naruto made his way through the hole that was once the entrance to the Psychiatric Ward of the prison. A large door stood in front of him, made from some of the strongest metal the city of Gotham could provide. Now, it stood open with bodies littering the floor in front of it.

Guards, prisoners, criminals, civilian workers it didn't matter who. All of the corpses were bloodied, torn and unrecognizable from the large chunks of flesh missing from each one. Narrowing his eyes Naruto walked further down the hall, passing each cell as more bodies became prevalent.

"So many dead… All with similar wounds, large lacerations, signs of mauling even…. Large portions of flesh missing as well as a few limbs…. What could have done this?…" He thought aloud, taking in the carnage around the hall. Stopping in the middle he took a closer look at one of the bodies, turning it up onto it's back. The body was bloodied, dressed in now tatters and surrounded by blood dripping from the wounds it has received.

"Hmm, male, at least 5'6… He was a guard from what I can make out from his tattered uniform…Skull shattered making the face unrecognizable….. Chest was caved in, left arm torn clean off by… Claw like marks, so that narrows it down substantially.." Looking down past his left stump of a missing limb he saw a large chunk of his left hip missing, jagged edges showing that a large maw clenched down onto his side to chew and rip off a large portion of his hip.

"A bite mark, around thirty-five centimeters in length…. Too large for one solid bite, must of been multiple attempts before the creature got a good grip on its victim…. There must be more, gonna have to do a more thorough search to know what I'm getting into." The thought aloud, not wanting to go further into the prison till he knew what he was dealing with to be properly prepared.

Ruffling through the dead man's tattered rags for further clues on the killer he found the dead man's wallet. The man's name was Michael Torris from what his ID could be salvaged, born in Gotham. Inside of the leather wallet was also a few pictures: the first being a photo of a rather small house with a sold sticker on the sign in front of it. The next was a photo of a brown haired woman holding a small bundle in her arms lovingly, with white Hospital wear on. Finally the last shot was of a small family in a park in front of a water fountain. A gruff looking man with brown eyes, black hair and business casual clothes smiled in the picture, holding a small brown haired, green eyed little girl on his shoulders. The girl in question wore a white sundress with matching shoes, wearing a matching smile to her father's. Standing to the right of the man was a short woman of about 5'4, with brown hair pulled into a high ponytail and warm green eyes only highlighted by a kind smile on her alabaster skin. Wearing a simple turtle-necked sweater, blue jeans and a pair of sneakers the woman looked very happy in the picture with her husband and daughter.

" _The man matches the build of the corpse, so I can assume that this is the victim. The woman to his left is his wife from the matching wedding bands on their fingers, meaning that the little girl is their daughter.. A family man, huh….."_ Looking over the contents of the wallet he tucked it back into the tatters. Seeing the family photo made him think of his own loved ones, hoping that they were alright at the moment. Hopefully Harley made it to the designated panic room when the alarms went off and was with the other Psychiatric personnel, safe from harm. Sighing he bowed his head in a respectful but regretting manner to the departed soul.

"May you find peace in the next life Michael Torris." Beginning to get up the blonde stopped when a muffled voice came from the corpse.

" _... ichael… Michael…..Do you copy?... Monster.. Everyones dead over here…"_ Picking through the clothes again he found a small walkie talkie on the back of the backs pockets of his pants.

Wiping some blood from the receiver he answered, "Mr. Torris… Didn't make it, this is Officer Nguyen. What's the situation?

" _... Nguyen?... The…. guy…. Pinned down in the west wing… Can't get to Commissioner Loeb…. Black Mask has him….. In the Execution Chamber room…. Croc's slaughtering us!... CHHSHSHHHHHHHHHH…."_ The connection cut off with the last cries of the officer on the other end.

Letting the receiver of the radio drop he messed with his own radio on his uniform, searching frequencies to get a better read on the situation.

Static…

Gunfire…

…. A roar in the background…

Bloody screams of the dying….

"… _This all about, Sionis? Haven't I always come through for you?"_ A quivering voice came from his receiver, dripping with fear as sounds of a struggle followed the males words.

That voice… Commissioner Loeb?

" _You may have, Gillian. But things have changed. We're starting with a clean slate - and you're not on it."_ Deep, muffled tones flowed from the other end. A hint of danger seeming to come from them as the sound of flesh hitting flesh reached through the connection. A punch or a slam from a body perhaps? Struggling, thrashing…

" _W-what are you… Talking about? I'm not on it? After everything… I have done for you..."_ A body slammed into a metal wall from the sound of the impact, fists slammed against a container.

Then came the hissing…

" _You can't do this! I'm the police Commissioner, damnit!"_ Loeb cried out, his words becoming no more than coughs by the end of his sentence as his breathing came out wheezing. His coughs and gasps of breath came out fewer and fewer until finally, they ended with nothing but silence on the other end of the frequency.

" _Show's over boys. Let's go."_ The voice ordered, leaving with his companions as the connection cut off.

" _Commissioner Loeb is dead, and from the voice speaking to him, I can only assume it was Black Mask that killed him. I should go to the Execution Chamber and confirm the Commissioners death, as well as pursue Black Mask to arrest him for the murder of Loeb."_ Making his way through the corridor he went through the passing metal door to a crossroad style room with three paths. Remembering the map of the prison Naruto followed it's directions and took the left path, going straight to the gas chamber room.

Though he couldn't help but notice the trail of unconscious thugs he came across when going to the place of the Commissioners murder. Was someone from the Department knocking a few skulls during this time? And if so, how did he not notice someone that had that type of skill?

No matter, the arrest came first. Thoughts of another doing good work could be entertained later.

Walking into the Execution Chamber he found three unconscious thugs, just like the last ones he encountered on his way to the room. Disregarding their presence for now he made his way to the gas chamber, peering through the glass to see a body inside obscured by the fumes of the deadly gas.

Seeing as he would need the machine off to confirm the body Naruto made his way to the gas valve. Turning the valve counterclockwise the gas flow stopped, prompting the air duct in the machine to sucking up any of the excess fumes revealing the body for Naruto to see.

There on the floor of the chamber was Commissioner Loeb's corpse.

"That confirms it, Commissioner Loeb is dead." Pulling his receiver up he switched frequencies to a different channel to share the news.

" _What is it? Please tell me it's good news…"_

"Captain Gordon, this is Officer Nguyen tasked to the guarding of Blackgate Penitentiaries Psychiatric Ward for the Criminally Insane. I have discovered and confirmed the death of Police Commissioner Loeb, over." Pulling his thumb from the button he waited, hearing a few curses coming from his superior.

" _Damn it! Of course, why wouldn't he be dead. Just another thing to add for tonight… Anyway, Nguyen is it?"_

"Yes, Captain."

" _Who killed the Commissioner and how did you find out about it?"_

"Black Mask, Captain. As to how I found out I came across the Commissioners radio frequency when I was searching through the frequencies to get an idea of the situation in the area at the moment. He must of left his radio on by mistake because he was speaking to Black Mask as if..." He paused, looking at the corpse as he remembered the man's words. As if the man was familiar with Black Mask, familiar in the way of having deals with him.

Illegal deals most likely.

" _As if?..."_

"... As if he was familiar with Mask, like the familiarity two criminals with a history in crime together would have…. Though the Commissioner played the part of the loose end partner tonight thanks to Mask, outliving his usefulness it seems." He relayed, muttering the last bit to himself so the Captain couldn't hear as he wondered what Loeb and Black Mask did in the past with their partnership.

Did Loeb give Mask leeway for his crimes? Did he supply him with information only privy to the Police? Bail out a few of his cronies for a price?...

All guess work now, since one of the only two people that could answer that question now was dead while the other was probably making an escape right now.

" _That's a huge disappointment, to think that the Commissioner could be wrapped up with someone like Mask puts a bad taste in my mouth. Still we'll have to give a funeral for the man since all we have is you as a listener to their conversation over radio, and unfortunately that's not enough to prove that the man committed a crime or crimes with Mask."_ Naruto looked over the corpse, carefully putting on gloves as he did so to keep his involvement out of any possible finger dustings or the like from investigations of the body.

He was curious, and he wasn't going to let a small regulation stop him. Call it being a bit of a truant if you will but he was within his rights to search the crime scene for evidence of the murder, Chapter 5, subsection 3, paragraph 2, if he remembered right.

Beginning to search the body he spoke, "Captain, the conversation took place five minutes ago. And if I am correct in my memory of the prison map-the quickest way out of here would be by helicopter. It is possible that Black Mask is still in the area, from my position if I was given the order, I could catch up to him and cut him off at the roofs helipad and make the arrest for the murder of the late Commissioner." The corpses jacket was just full of awards, trinkets and the still turned on radio, which he turned off as soon as he found it, nothing of importance so far.

" _Nguyen, if I give that order you would be going into a viper's nest! Black Mask most definitely has men guarding him armed to the teeth for protection. As well as Killer Croc with him from the maulings and sightings from the officers that he didn't chomp down on."_ Naruto shook his head disagreeing with the captain, as well as beginning to pat down the corpse for anything else.

"Sir, with all due respect. I have been in worse situations in Iraq, I have experience with these types of things. I won't be going in without a plan, and if that fails I'm already assuming that you will be right behind me with the rest of the department ready to make the arrest." He reassured, standing up as he found nothing on the corpse. Nothing incriminating at least. Sighing he stopped searching seeing no point in a fruitless search.

" _... Fine, but only because like you said I will be bringing in backup so don't make the arrest till we get to the helipad. We'll be up in ten minutes, so all you have to do is stall him. Don't do anything stupid kid."_

Naruto smirked, "Don't worry sir, I won't. See you up there." Cutting off the frequency he cracked his neck, exiting the room and making his way to the helipad.

Ending up at the staircase to the helipad he could make out a rather large figure, loud crunching noises emanating from it as it gorged and chewed on its meal. Wet splashes filled the staircase as blood and gore fell to the ground, growls of pleasure accompanying the splashes as Naruto cautiously approached with his AR-15 set to fully automatic.

"I have a new scent…. And it smells like pig…" Naruto stopped, aiming at the large mass of scales in front of him.

"Yes, a little pig.. Right behind me…" It chuckled, disregarding Naruto as he aimed his rifle at him.

"Freeze, put your hands where I can see them Croc!" Scaled muscles twitched, towering over the police officer as he aimed at his back. Powerful jaws snapped, breaking bones as a scaled face looked over his shoulder to see Naruto with his rifle pointed at him. Trapped inside his jaw was a guard, from what the blonde could recognize it was one of the guards that was making talking rudely about him when he was having lunch with Harley.

Croc spit the mangled body out of his maw, licking his bloody teeth with his reptilian tongue to savor the blood of his meal. The body splattered on the ground with a splash of gore, to which Naruto only raised a brow at the display but didn't comment.

"Freeze, huh?..." The beast rumbled, turning fully to face the tick that dared to tell him what to do. Standing at an impressive 9'2 the large lizard was covered in dark green scales from head to toe. Dark green scales spiked around his skull pointing up and outward behind him in miniscule protrusions with black dull crocodile like eyes glaring down at Naruto. From his eyes to his jaw a lighter shade of green scales was apparent, framing dull yellow, menacing teeth still dripping with blood. His arms, clawed hands, shoulders and back were covered in a thicker looking set of dark green scales that wrapped around his form that hinted to going to his lower body as well. His chest was the same shade of green as his jaw, showing muscles honed from years of crime and slaughter. Covering his lower half was a ripped pair of jeans that seemed to fit the Croc despite his large size, almost covering his three toed, clawed feet.

Naruto just charged his weapons bolt to the rear, setting the bullet into the chamber. "Yes, freeze Croc. Or do you prefer I call you Waylon Jones?"

Waylon Jones, abandoned by his parents he was left in the care of his aunt. Unfortunately she was an alcoholic and an abusive relative that beat and demeaned Waylon whenever she could because of his strange appearance due to a genetic disorder. His academic life was also a mirror of his home life, filled with physical and emotional abuse from mean spirited youths. Finally after years of abuse Waylon snapped, embracing his rather violent instincts he murdered his aunt, devoured her remains and joined the circus. Adopting the name Killer Croc the young lad finally felt like he belonged with the small family he had in the circus people. Unfortunately fate was not so kind as only a few months later a rather violent audience of Gotham City destroyed the carnival and the people closest to Croc. Enraged KillerCroc has sworn vengeance on all of Humanity for their crimes against him, changing him into a monster driven by bloodlust and hatred that fed and grows on human flesh. Now he usually works with mob bosses as a cannibalistic hitman, sating his appetite for human flesh and monetary was dealing with a bonified maneater, literally it seems.

This got a growl from the genetic behemoth, "Don't even think about calling me by that Human name! I am Killer Croc, Killer Croc!"

"Very well, Killer Croc. Surrender and come in peacefully. I have a masked man to arrest as well and this is slowing my progress slightly." Naruto ordered, motioning with his weapon for Croc to go down on the floor in surrender.

Croc laughed, "Hahahah, funny pig. But I ain't surrenderin', but… I have a better idea. Instead of me surrenderin' why don't you become my next meal!" Seeing Croc charge at him Naruto sidestepped the attempt, opening fire on the killer in retaliation. Bouncing off of his hide the bullets did little to nothing as Croc smashed into the door, bending it inwards. Chuckled darkly Croc gripped the doors edges as it groaned and whined in protest.

" _Bullets don't seem to work on his hide, will have to try on less armored scales that seem to be across his chest and abdomen."_ Cutting the thought short Naruto ducked as the large steel door slammed into the ground behind him.

Roaring in challenge Croc rushed the blonde, quickly reducing the distance between them as he made to grab him. Ducking under the attempt Naruto fired on Crocs exposed stomach at point blank range. This had the effect of the bullets bouncing or bruising the scales of the large lizard, unfortunately doing little damage. Growling in irritation the behemoth brought his fists down to smash the policeman into pieces.

"Shit!" The blonde jumped back dodging the attack that left a small crater in the concrete as he continued to fire on the less scaled parts of Croc. Swinging his claws furiously Croc tried to cut the little man to ribbons, succeeding in only striking the air as the blonde ducked and weaved through the stikes. Unable to fire his weapon Naruto was forced to continue to dodge the furious strikes as he was pushed back.

" _Damn it bullets won't work! Have to…. Think… of something!"_ He dodged with each thought, backflipping away as well as putting his rifle over his shoulder with the action tightening the strap of the weapon so it wouldn't fly off of him. Slashing again Croc over extended on the last of his strikes, allowing an opportunity for the blonde to grab onto the clawed hand and pull himself forward with a fist pulled back slamming it with all he's got into the creature's skull.

"Gah!" Croc took a few steps back as the power of the punch was more than he expected, dazing him for a few seconds. Taking the opportunity Naruto dropped down to the ground launching a series of fast punches and kicks into Croc, pushing him back as he grunted in pain from the onslaught. Finishing it with a spinning kick Naruto jumped back as a claw slammed into the ground where he was originally standing, huffing in slight exhaustion as he held a loose boxing stance across from Croc.

" _This is going nowhere fast. I could beat him within an inch of his life if my attacks really fazed him like they did but in the process Black Mask would get away because of my fight with Croc, I have to get to the rooftop now. Seems like I'm going to have to make a bit of a retreat…"_ Resolving his plan he dodged to the right of Croc and dashed to the stairs.

"Where do you think your going?!" Crocs claw whipped out and swiped at Naruto's armor, grabbing it and hauling him back to the lizardman. Whipping back due to the momentum of Crocs pull Naruto let gravity take it's course, grabbed onto the hand grabbing him and twisted the grip on his armor allowing the grip to loosen. Capitalizing on the loosened grip the Naruto rapidly punched Crocs eyes when they came into view in his upside down view. Roaring in pain Croc held his damaged eyes, letting go of Naruto in the process.

Flipping through the air Naruto landed in a crouch a few feet away from Croc and even farther away from the stairs.

"Now," He muttered dashing passed Croc and reaching the stairs in a few seconds as he ascended the spiraling staircase with each step going up three stairs. Rubbing his eyes Croc looked around seeing that Naruto wasn't around. Growling he sniffed the air, picking up the blondes scent and turning his gaze upwards seeing the blonde ascend the stairs.

"No one can run from me, no one!" Roaring in outrage he leaped at the wall, slamming his claws into the surface of it and quickly climbing up to take care of the retreating cop.

Back with Naruto he was halfway up the stairs when a large piece of concrete flew from behind him taking out a few stairs in the process. Looking down he could see Croc climbing after him while taking chunks of the wall out with a swipe of his claws and propelling them at him.

" _Damn it he's persistent. Well, this may work in my favor. If I lure him up to the helipad there are bound to be fuel tanks up there, I could blow them up close to him taking him out of the equation leaving Black Mask for the taking. I take out Croc and Mask at once….I like it."_ Smirking Naruto doubled his efforts, climbing up and up as he dove out of the way of large cement projectiles.

Jumping up from wall to wall now Croc slammed into the stairs, destroying a portion of them behind Naruto as he passed Croc. Tripping slightly Naruto caught himself and flipped onto the rail running along it ascending with perfect balance, with Croc jumping after him. Flipping to the side Naruto slammed a heel into Croc's back throwing him to the left side and into the opposing wall.

Catching himself in the air Croc brought his claws to the wall and caught himself, skidding down for a few feet with trenchesl left from his claws till he came to a grinding halt.

"RRRRRRARAAAAAAAHAHHHHHHHHHH!" Losing his temper Croc launched himself at the human that dared to mock him. To hit him into a wall, to dodge his every attempt at devouring him!

Seeing the approaching Croc through the air the young Nguyen ducked just as the large reptile slammed into the wall, breaking it and making a large hole in the surface of it. Claws launched from the debris falling from the hole, reaching for Naruto to rip him into pieces. Punching the claws away the blonde hit the railing, making him stumble slightly as he was forced to look down to the bottom of the building giving a sense of vertigo from the large drop from seven stories up. Unfortunately this allowed for Croc to get a hold of him as he charged at the blonde, grabbing onto his throat and bringing his fanged maw down to devour his skull.

"RAAAAAAGGHHHHH!" He roared, feeling gloved hands take his head and push against him as he tried to bite and maul the blonde. Struggling against the chomping teeth and choking claws Naruto pushed against the Croc's head as well as slamming his boots into the creature's chest to gain leverage.

"LET!…."

CHOMP

"GO!…

CHOMP

"OF!…."

CHOMP

"ME!" Naruto choked, kicking Croc in the chest harder and harder with each strangled word till finally he gained enough leverage to get out of his hold and over the railing. Losing his grip on Naruto, Croc watched as he fell over the railing and looked down, only to see the blonde not falling to his doom like he thought he would. He was just gone, without a trace.

Under the staircase Naruto grabbed the edge of it and swung his left arm to the other side, getting a grip with his hand and grabbed onto it with his other one. Twisting around Naruto kicked off the wall and grabbed the railing above, jumping over it and extending his right leg at Crocs back. Thus sending Croc over the railing and down to the bottom of the building.

"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Croc flailed all the while down to the bottom, smashing into the ground with a loud bang kicking up concrete and dust all around the impact area. The concrete seemingly wrapped around the creature as debris and dust fell all around it. All that was visible was a single claw reaching up with rubble all around, burying the large reptile and seeming to keep it from moving.

"Fuck…. That guy…" Huffed Naruto, catching his breathe as he straightened out his clothes. Shaking it off he ascended the last of the stairs and went up a ladder to come across a hatch to the rooftop of the Penitentiary. Twisting it open Naruto pulled himself up and was instantly hit with the freezing cold of the winter ocean breeze.

The perfect view of the lights from Gotham city as well as the other side of the prison could be seen from this vantage point, as well as a sight of a landing helicopter with Black Mask walking to it. Getting onto his feet Naruto took his rifle and fired right next to the man's head, making him flinch away from it as the blonde approached him keeping his sight on him and the two thugs in the helicopter.

"Hold it! Black Mask, you are under arrest for the murder of Police Commissioner Loeb. Now everyone, put your hands up to where I can see them and don't try anything funny. I see anything out of the ordinary and I'll take out your kneecaps." The three of them followed his orders, with the pilot frozen as he couldn't take off lest his boss got shot.

"My, my, seems we have an Ace in Gotham's Police Department. And so young too, tell me, how ever did you get past Croc? I was sure he was more than a match for any policeman Gotham could acquire, yet, here you are. Tired, ragged… But alive." Black Mask asked looking over his shoulder to see the blonde, curious as how a normal man could have beat the beast that was Killer Croc. After all it wasn't every day a normal man could beat someone that could pry open bank vault doors like it was nothing.

Naruto just narrowed his eyes, leveling his rifle on Mask's head. "I'm not your average policeman and leave it at that. Now on the ground, now!" The two thugs looked conflicted, as much as any men with full facial masks, and looked to their leader for confirmation. A small rumble sounded from under them but no one heard it, except for Black Mask making a mad smirk cross his lips as a chuckle escaped him.

"Just play along for now you two. Something tells me the cavalry is about to arrive boys." Another low rumble sounded, this time louder allowing the thugs to hear it. Smirking they did as they were told, allowing Naruto to switch his radio on to call it in.

"Captain Gordon this is Officer Nguyen, I have incapacitated Killer Croc and have Black Mask and a few of his men in my custody." Pausing he waited for the other end to respond.

" _.. Nguyen? You… Wow, I'm impressed, good work. We'll be up there in two minutes, just have to tie up some loose ends and then we'll be right there."_ Another rumble sounded, now much louder with the roof shaking slightly as Naruto looked to the ground in questioning.

"Roger, Captain. Question, do you know what's causing the disturbance in the building?" This time the pause was longer as the rumbling grew now in frequency and noise, as well as shaking the roof more. The thugs now stumbling a little as they were on the floor, Black Mask didn't make a sound as the rumbling grew louder.

" _... No, can't say…. I do…. Something's moving up there though, keep your guard up."_ With that warning the rumbling went to a new high, shaking the roof so much that Naruto had to take a knee to stay stable as the the roof goaned and rumbled with a low growl underlying the rumbling.

"What the hell?!" Questioning the event Naruto could only brace himself as the hatch he came from exploded upward and the ground around it collapsed in an explosion of force as the roof shuddered from the explosion. Flying up from the explosion a large shadow came to overshadow the moon for a second then came crashing down onto the roof with a loud slam cracking it in a spiderweb.

There, in front of Naruto was Killer Croc and he looked worse for wear. A few of his scales were chipped off, lacerations covered his person as he huffed and growled in pure rage. His claws seemed to be bleeding from cuts and pieces of debris in them as cold, infuriated eyes locked onto the blonde.

"YOU!... YOU LITTLE FUCKER! DIIIIIEEEE!" He bellowed, slamming his fists into the ground sending a shockwave of concrete Naruto's way. Moving to dodge the attack Naruto found himself pushed out of the way as a flourish of black passed him, slamming into the enraged beast that was Killer Croc. Stumbling back a black gloved fist found its way to his face, then a boot, then finally a haymaker making him step back even more as he held his head in pain as he shook it to clear his dazed state. Moving quickly the black clad man let loose a flurry of punches into the Crocs body and face, pushing him further and further back till finally he let loose one final punch that slammed him close to the edge of the fence overlooking the ocean.

Shaking out of his daze Croc glared at the man, "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU?!"

The black and grey clad man stood at 6'2, dressed in a dark cowl with eyes set in a permanent scowl glared at the reptilian hitman.A black cape obscured and surrounded the man giving him an air of mystery and authority.

Two words, just two words were uttered by the man in a deep, dark, gravelly voice that introduced the man to the world. "I'm Batman."

" _Batman?... Damn, he's actually real. Going to have to give Harl her twenty dollars, she was right."_ Naruto thought, tensing in case this man may move to strike at him. He didn't know whose side he was on after all.

The air picked up in volume, pushing against the three of them prompting them to turn to see the helicopter taking off with Black Mask waving down to them as he closed the door, cutting himself from view as he got away.

"Damn it! He's getting away!" Naruto growled, tightening his hold on his AR-15 as he knew he couldn't fire at the copter from the distance it was going.

"Focus on the problem on hand, not the problem off hand." The Batman told him, as Croc slammed his fist's into the ground creating fissures in the roof heading straight for the two of them. Splitting up Batman went to the left while Naruto went to the right, completely dodging the attacks.

"HAHAHA, Batman…. I'll be able to take that bounty on your head, and kill THIS LITTLE FUCK! EVERYONE WINS!" Croc cackled as he jumped at the Dark Knight, swiping at him prompting him to roll away. Dashing at Croc Naruto let loose a right round-house kick, knocking the reptile's head back as he followed it with a left hook, right jab, left haymaker, right gut punch and rapid fire punches that pushed him back a good foot away and slammed a right hook, slamming him into the wall of the building.

Jumping away Naruto missed being hit by a fast swipe from the reptile, cleaving the air with a loud 'whoosh' sound.

Growling Croc heard the sound of a helicopter coming, showing a group of Black Mask's henchmen coming in as back-up. Growling he picked up one of the fuel tanks, meaning to throw it at one of them. "Playtime is over!

Taking out a metal bat-like-shuriken Batman let it fly at the fuel tank making it explode in Croc's hands dazing him. Moving in quickly the caped man swept his weighted cape into Croc's face, a fist into his chin, an elbow into his neck and an uppercut sending him into the fuel tanks stopping his fall. Snarling Croc got up and charged at Batman, grabbing him before he could dodge and threw him at Nguyen.

Meanwhile the five henchmen touched down on the roof and made their way over to Naruto, surrounding him to beat him down. Ducking under a punch the blonde swept the man's legs out from under him and stomped down onto his chest and smashed his fist into his skull making him pass out. Moving to the next man Naruto punched his jugular making him gasp for breath as he followed up with a left hook to the temple knocking him out. Blocking a baseball bat from his peripheral vision Naruto took the offending weapon and turned it against it's owner with a quick arc to the man's gut and breaking it off on the upper part of his skull.

Turning to the next attacker he blocked a punch, grabbing the man's hand and broke it in his grasp making the thug cry out in pain only to be silenced when he shattered his jaw on the policemans fist. Finally backhanding the last thug with a closed fist he finished him with a twisting punch throwing him to the ground.

Turning to Croc he only had an instant to react then-

BAM

-he was laid out on the floor with Batman on top of him. Getting up the two looked to see Croc mid-leap bringing down all his weight at their position. Rolling away from their positions Killer Croc stomped down right after they moved, making cracks in the roof spiderweb all along his landing spot.

"STAND STILL!" He roared, bringing his claws in wide arcs to slice the two men into bloody gore. Jumping over the swipes Naruto propelled himself over Croc as Batman ducked and slid under him. Facing his back the two launched a barrage of punches and kicks, taking him by surprise as he struck at them, twisting around and slamming his fists into the ground sending a small shockwave all around him sending them flying.

"Gah!" They groaned, slamming into the fence and making it bend slightly over the ocean below.

Snarling Croc went and picked up another fuel tank, with even more thugs coming in by helicopters.

"IT'S TIME FOR A LITTLE BARBEQUE!" Shaking his head at the beastial bellows from Croc Naruto pulled a 9Mm from his left leg holster. Aiming at the tank he made to take a shot only for Batman to shift his aim to miss completely.

Turning to him he glared, "What the hell are you doing?! If I don't take out the tank were dead!"

The man in black only got up, grunting in slight discomfort. "Not yet, the people aren't out of-"

BOOOM

"-the way." He finished, with the tank exploding with a few bullets from Naruto destroying it and killing the thugs in the process.

"Those people would have killed us, I'm just making sure I make it back to my family. It's either them or us in this, Bats." He grunted, dashing to the dazed Croc with Batman on his heels.

Throwing the first punch Naruto followed it up with a quick hook left right into his jaw, spinning his body to finish with a rather explosive kick that sent him away from Croc. Moving in after the police officer Batman slammed his shoulder into Croc's stomach knocking the wind out of his lungs. Following it up with a series of increasingly quick punches the Bat launched a punishing uppercut knocking the behemoth into the last of the fuel tanks.

Rolling back the Bat got out of the way of a scaled fist, narrowly dodging it as Croc snarled in pain. Huffing in exhaustion the large reptile began to get up, struggling to get onto his feet again as he fell back onto the fuel tank glaring at them with unadulterated rage.

"I… Will not… BE BEATEN BY HUMANS!" Naruto and Batman just tensed, readying another shot and batarang.

"You just were Croc." They said, throwing and firing their weapon respectively into the remaining tank creating a large explosion with Croc in the center of it. Covering his eyes from the blast Naruto coughed, waving off the smoke as he saw the large man fall against the fence breaking it and making it bend to hang over the waters below.

Dashing to Croc's position Batman jumped onto his chest, ready to interrogate the beast on the location of his boss. For the one responsible for the breakout.

"Your boss. Where's he going?" Batman said as he punched Croc across the face.

"Only boss a'me is me." Croc said as he got another jab in the face. The metal fence was still creaking due to their combined weight and each punch was probably another punch towards their plummet towards the rocky ocean below.

"You want teeth. I want answers." Batman said as he gave the scaled man an uppercut. All he got from Croc was a gruntled laugh.

"Wait 'till Black Mask's assassins get through with you-" Croc was soon interrupted with another jab in the face.

"What assassins?" Batman asked getting more of the fence to bend more and further their chances to plummet. Croc started to laugh unnerving Naruto on the sidelines while only irritating the masked being.

"Whoever wins is going to be famous AND rich." he said before Batman knocked him out.

"At least we know he won't be ugly." Batman said as he started to drag Croc onto solid ground. After that, the metal fence finally gave way and fell off towards the ocean below.

"Freeze!" Naruto said as he trained his gun towards Batman. Even if the Bat helped him, he still had to take him in for questioning, even if he didn't really agree with it. He owed the man after all for the help. Batman turned around and saw Naruto with the rest of the police force starting to show up with the spotlight aiming towards him.

"Hold it right there! I'm taking you in!" James Gordon said as they noticed Batman touch something on his armored arm before he started walking back towards the edge of the cliff.

"Not tonight," Was all he said before he jumped back causing Naruto and some police officers to run towards the edge. They were soon greeted towards the site of an aircraft none of them have ever seen before rise up in the air with Batman climbing in. It soon took off and left towards Gotham leaving the officers on the roof of Blackgate.

"No such thing as a Bat Man, huh?" Bullock said as Gordon and Naruto looked towards where the plane went.

"I can admit when I'm wrong Bullock. No need to say it." Gordon said, cracking his neck as he looked to one of the policemen.

"Let's get the big guy in a nice warm cell. Bullock you're in charge of Croc's lock up." Bullock groaned but nodded, moving over to the unconscious Croc with a few police officers for help.

"Don't know if I should pity Croc's cellmate or not." Bullock said as he helped secure Croc and moved him inside.

"Now I'm wondering how the hell did Black Mask and his goons get inside of this place." Naruto said as Gordon picked up on that.

"On the way through here, we stumbled upon Warden Joseph with a very damaged eye, several bruises and a broken arm. Some of my men escorted him to the medical bay while we continued our way up here. Before we showed up I got a message from them saying that Black Mask captured Joseph and tortured him until he gave Black Mask access into the prison." Gordon said as Naruto winced on that information. Naruto respected the Warden greatly, to know that the rather easy going man was tortured for information left him in a bit of a foul mood from the thought. His fists clenched in rage as he had an even bigger stake to take Back Mask down with.

"Using torture for intimidation and entertainment. A lot of times I really hate that sadistic bastard." Naruto said as Gordon nodded.

"So was there anything that went on before we came up?" The captain asked the blonde.

"Yeah, Croc said that Black Mask hired assassins to take care of Bats for a substantial reward. Sir, if they are already in Gotham, tonight is going to be bloody." Naruto said as Gordon sternly nodded and rubbed his neck.

"Yeah, was hoping that I could of called it a night to spend time with my little girl for Christmas Night but now it's not going to happen all that well. Alright, Nguyen I want you to help out with this situation at hand. Its going to be a very long night to find Black Mask and put an end to this." Gordon said as Naruto nodded.

"Sir. What about Loeb? He died earlier and I don't know who is going to be in charge for now until his official replacement comes in." Naruto said as Gordon momentarily remembered of what Naruto told him earlier of Loeb's death and situation.

"Well by the chain of command, that makes me the temporary one until the board chooses one later. Right now stand by for any developments." Naruto nodded seeing the logic in putting someone in charge if only temporary. The department couldn't function without proper leadership after all.

"Yes, Sir. Will that be all?" Gordon stiffly nodded, dismissing Naruto to do as he was told. Slipping past everyone Naruto pulled out his phone when he entered the prison, calling Pamela to give her the news.

" _.. Hello?"_

"Pam, it's Naruto. I won't be able to make it tonight for our date." He paused, hearing nothing from the other line as he walked down the stairs the others came up from.

" _What… Why? Did something happen?"_ He sighed, running his hands through his hair as he went down the steps.

"There was a break out here at Blackgate, Black Mask and Killer Croc were the instigators of it. I fought Croc and made my way up to the roof to apprehend Black Mask with Croc following me. When I got there Batman showed up, fought Croc with me and helped take him down. After that he just left in a plane I haven't seen before, avoiding an arrest from me and the others."

 _"Are you alright? You didn't break anything did you?"_ The redhead questioned worriedly.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. It'll take more than some overgrown crocodile to do me in Pam." He said with bravado, making her chuckle on the other end of the signal.

 _"I know that, doesn't stop me from worrying about you every time you leave for work though Hon.."_ Her voice lowered, a hint of worry and dread in her tone as Naruto flinched slightly at that. While Pamela was understanding and supportive of his job, she was also vocal with her worries of him leaving and never returning because something may happen on the job. Even when he promises her nothing will happen she would accept it but it would still be there, the small inkling of doubt.

"You won't lose me Pam, if I have to beat down every single criminal in Gotham to stay by your side I would. If I had to fight God, the Devil, Aliens, Mutants and every other thing that breathes just to prove to you that I will never leave you and die then I would. I promised you that I would never leave and I always keep my promises, especially to the woman I love." He smiled, pushing every ounce of his feelings into his speech to tell her how he felt.

 _"Hon..."_ Some sniffles came through the phone.

"Now please, don't worry to much. I'll get right back to the apartment when this is all said and done. Just have to help in the arrest of Black Mask and his crew and I'll be free to come back safe and sound." He soothed her with soft words, getting her to calm down.

" _Alright, I understand….."_ She sighed on the other end slowly calming down, disappointed but understanding of the situation. He had a responsibility to put the criminals away, of course it doesn't mean she liked that he had to work on Christmas Night.

"I promise to make it up to you ten times over, ok?" He said, making his way down the final stair and to the medical bay.

" _I'll hold you to that Hon, be safe and come back in one piece. I love you.."_ Her voice trembled with emotion, worry and love apparent in her words making Naruto's lips curl in a smile. His heart warming to her words at this otherwise cold night.

"I will Pam, I love you too. See you soon." Hanging up he let loose a breath he didn't knew he was holding and walked into the medical bay of the prison. Countless injured guards and policeman were littered across the futons and floor being treated the medical personnel that could be spared.

Walking over to one of the scrub clad medical personnel he tapped his shoulder. Turning around the doctor gave him a questioning look, "Yes, can I help you?"

"Yes, I was wondering where I could find Warden Joseph. I was told he was sent here due to injuries." The doctor nodded and guided him to the back of the room, moving the curtains to reveal Joseph on a futon. Unconscious from the world he was an African American male with bandages wrapped around his left eye and chest. His right arm was set in a cast and the rest was obscured from view by blankets, an I.V. drip was put up with him as well as a heart monitor.

Naruto looked upon the injured man with saddened eyes, "How is he?"

"He'll recover, though his left eye will never see anything again from the burns to it caused by his torturer. Right now we have him sleeping to speed up the healing process, he'll be up and about in a month or two. I'll just leave you two alone for a few minutes, please leave as quietly as possible once your done. No need to disturb his recovery." Leaving Naruto with Joseph the doctor left to attend to the other patients.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to do anything to help you Warden, but I promise I will take down Black Mask for doing this to you and I never go back on a promise.." His fist clenched in anger as he stood in the Warden's room. Leaving quickly after seeing Joseph's condition Naruto made his way to the panic room where he assumed Harley was at.

After a while he arrived at a steel door, serving as the entrance to the panic room. Knocking on it in a pattern only known by the staff, the door opened revealing Harley with a bit of a scared look on her face.

Seeing that it was Naruto her expression quickly changed to that of a joy filled one.

"Naru! You're alright!" Jumping into his arms, Harley held onto him tightly, clearly rattled from the break out and subsequent riots around the prison that followed. Behind her were a few older personnel holding makeshift weapons, but lowered them seeing it was just Naruto opening the door.

Smiling he held her close, rubbing her back comfortingly. "Of course I am, you know it would take a lot more than a bunch of two bit thugs to take me down Harl. What about you, are you hurt?"

She shook her head, burying it deep into his neck as her arms around his back tightened. "No, I got to the panic room in time before it got too bad….." She sniffled slightly, "I know they can't.. It doesn't mean I don't worry about you idiot, you're my bestfriend..."

Pulling back he looked into her blue, slightly tear stricken eyes and cupped her cheek brushing the remains of her tears away. This in turn had the effect of a small blush staining her cheeks due to feeling of him stroking her cheek. Biting her lip she stopped a moan from escaping her lips.

"Your mine as well Harl, and I promise nothing will ever happen to me ok?" She narrowed her eyes on him.

"You promise?…" She looked into his eyes, searching for any type of deceit in his words.

He nodded never looking away from her eyes, "I promise Harl, nothing will happen to me if I can help it."

Smiling she hugged him again, content in his words as she felt safe in his arms. Just enjoying the moment with her strong, caring, sw-

"NGUYEN! Come on were getting briefed by Captain in a few minutes at the main hall, get your ass in gear." A passing cop ordered.

-damn, so close. Well as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Slowly moving out of Harleen's embrace Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Well, duty calls. Stay safe Harl." Turning away from her he made his way to the briefing.

"You too Naru." She said as she saw him leave, clutching her hands to her heart.

 **XXXXXX**

 **8:00 P.M., Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **Blackgate Penitentiary, Main Hall**

"Alright people, listen up!" Gordon called over the thrum of voices gathered in the hall. To the side Naruto leaned against the wall, looking over the slides being put up behind Gordon.

"Currently we have no intelligence on the whereabouts of Black Mask except for his usual spots and businesses." Gordon pointed to a few points on the projected image of Gotham's map with a laser pointer.

"His men are walking the streets of Gotham in more frequent patrols so every household has been advised to stay in their homes via the emergency channels. The use of force is permitted if the perpetrators have weapons calling for such actions."

"You will all be split into groups of four around the city, each side will go to their corresponding numbers." The map split into four sections with the numbers one through four being split on the map.

"The front group of chairs to my right, your left, will be group one. The group to the right of them, will be group two. Behind them will be group three and the last group will be group four. Now get your chains of command and they will give you a more indepth brief on the tasks you are all assigned, dismissed." Getting up with the dismissal the policemen filtered out of the hall. Though one man pushed against the flow of departures, holding a rather large object as he made his way to the temporary Commissioner.

"Captain! Captain, you… You have to see this." The skinny man said, presenting the object to Gordon and gaining the interest of Naruto as he passed by. In his hands was what appeared to be a scrapped UAV drone colored black with both of its rotor blade wings torn clean off.

"What's with the drone?" Gordon asked, looking over the piece of equipment.

"Well, when we were digging around for clues on Black Mask's whereabouts we found this little beauty in some of the rubble. Taking it apart we found that the hard wired memory chip was gone, but the audio recording data was still on the on the drones base memory board and you won't believe who this drone belongs to." Moving closer Naruto looked over the drone, only to find a familiar symbol on the drone.

"Penguin." This brought the two policemen's attention to Naruto.

"Y-yes, how did you?.."

"I read the man's file as well as memorized every high profile criminal file of Gotham's residence when I was given access to the files once I graduated the academy." He pointed to the Penguin symbol getting them to look as well.

"This is Penguins crest, his brand for his criminal activities really. Penguin, or Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, likes to keep tabs on the ongoings of his criminal rivals to have a layout of their basic plans and exploit them to his advantage and profit off them or utterly crush them." He tapped the drone, thinking over the possibilities in his head.

"Right now his main competition is the Falcone family and Black Mask, so it is within reason that since no Falcone is here locked up in the Blackgate system then he was keeping tabs on Black Mask when he was raising hell here."

"Which means that if we find Penguin we may be able to find Black Mask with his cooperation." Gordon hummed, following Naruto's reasoning as he nodded.

"Exactly, sir." Turning to the skinny policeman the blonde gestured to the drone, "Would you be so kind as to play the audio file. This may prove useful." He nodded, wiring the drone to play the audio from its speakers.

"… _. You sure this'll work?"_ A lilting British accent came from the speakers, female in nature from the soft tone.

" _Oy, 'course it'll work luv. With this little number 'ere, Sionis won't know I'm watching 'is every move. Right now this baby has already recorded a week of his operations and 'e 'asn't even noticed!" A squawking, British accented voice laughed._

" _Brilliant! That means you'll be five steps a'ead of 'im luv."_

" _Hmmm, right. Well time to let this little bird spread its wings, after it's done recording the Blackgate debacle I'll have it record LeBlanc's deal in Jezebel Plaza tonight. I'm beginning to t'ink t'at yank has been cutting into my profits."_ The recording ended with the snarl of Penguin, leaving the three to think on his words.

"Seems like we just found a lead to Penguin, thank you Ryan for bringing this to my attention." Ryan nodded to Gordon.

"No problem, Captain. Just doing my job." Turning his attention to Naruto, Gordon moved him away from Ryan to discuss the issue at hand.

"Nguyen, I want you to follow up this lead. Alone." Gordon told him after the last of the police left the hall.

"Sir?" He questioned, getting a shake of the head from Gordon.

"Look, if I send a squad after this guy they would scare LeBlanc stiff out of the area. But if I send just you, you'll be able to jump the guy and get a location on Penguin." He raised a hand stopping Naruto from even asking why just him.

"Let's get to the point, I know you can do this. If not because of the fact that you were able to take down Croc almost on your own, I know your military accomplishments. Well, what accomplishments the brass allowed for me to see that is. Through your time in Iraq to your draft into Delta Force only a few years in the service to be exact, that's where my knowledge ends. I want you to find LeBlanc, make him talk and find Penguin. When you do that, I'll brief you over the radio for your next task with the endgame being the arrest of Black Mask. We clear?" Gordon said, crossing his arms.

Naruto nodded, "Crystal Sir.

"Good, I'll have a helicopter ready to take you into the city. In five minutes, get ready. It's going to be a long night." Gordon told him, leaving Naruto to prepare for his night in the city.

He had a dealer to question…

 **XXXXXXX**

 **(KY appears in a burst of smoke) Wooooh, so much happened this chapter. I am beat! But it was worth it, Jebest4781 and I really wanted to bring this to you guys so here it is. If you all are wondering to the pairing, well it's not changing. If your questioning on if more women will join, well you'll have to keep reading to find out. Anyway as you all can see Naruto is not someone you want to mess with in a fight. Some of Naruto's past was revealed, Croc got his ass handed to him by the blonde and the bat, some people died, and we got to see the girls acting a little amorous to our hero. I would say it was pretty fulfilling no?**

 **Well now it's the start of the Origins Arc, how will Naruto fare in questioning LeBlanc? What's Batman going to do? Why am I asking you guys? Dunno, but anyways thanks for your support guys J and I really appreciate it. Next thing to be updated will be a surprise as always so look forward to it.**

 **If you want more just Favorite, Follow and Review**

 **Later guys! (KY Disappears in a blink of an eye.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Maelstroms Mask**

 **(KY appears in a burst of smoke) Hello everyone! (Eyes bulge at the amount of Followers in the audience) Holy! When did the story get this many people interested?! Well ah... Wow, I'm ecstatic! Fuck yeah, thank you all for your support! Now I gotta say when Jebest4781 and I put the second chapter up, I did NOT predict so much positive feedback coming our way so fast. I also didn't think so many new people would take an interest in the story so quickly, its awesome knowing that you guys are enjoying the story and both J and I are happy to release the third chapter to the story.**

 **KY: Now reading over the reviews I have seen that a lot of you guys are curious to the pairing of Naruto with Ivy, as well as the possibility of Harley getting into the relationship. Now, J and I are not putting it past that and from the comics it is almost a no brainer. So in answer to the question, it is a high possibility that they will end up together with it getting pretty interesting in the relationship dynamic of three people.**

 **(J drops down onto the stage with a grappling hook on hand) Also a few people had asked if there will be others that will be with Naruto and for right now we will not be revealing any further girls that will hook up in Naruto's open relationship. Not saying harem since if trying to be realistic seems dirty so open relationship seems cleaner. Anyways the other girls me and KY have planned to be with Naruto will stay a secret until further notice.**

 **KY: Also the title has changed since a few of you have messaged me thinking this is in Arkham Knight? So to clear up the confusion the title has been changed as well as me addressing right now that this is in the Arkham Origins time, we are waaaaaaaayy before Knight right now.**

 **KY: Now to the Harley and Ivy questions, Harley is the canon version with J and my own spin on her past to where she is the innocent woman before she is warped by the Joker into his sexy henchwoman. So no new 52 spin on her character like making someone commit suicide to proclaim their love for her. Now is she going to follow Joker? You'll just have to read to find out. Ivy is NOT a plant right now! She isn't, she's still the sexy scientist since this is before her accident. Now Ivy is a bit of her original self with a bit of stuff added but for the most part we are trying to stay true to her formula.**

 **J: Of course. Our plans for Harley and Pam will be between us on how they will be developed more into what we fully plan for them. So please don't ask anymore until further notice on that. Wouldn't want to ruin the surprise right?**

 **KY: Finally to Naruto himself, he is not from the Elemental Nations if you haven't seen so far. He is born on DC comics Earth, he has no Chakra, no super powers. Will he get better over time and more badass? Yes, yes he will. But no superpowers, at the most his person will be enhanced but that is it. He is Human, so don't think for one second that he will get superpowers anywhere in this story.  
**

 **J: If there will be a moment later in the story that makes readers think 'hey he does have superpowers yet you guys say he doesn't'. Now we have plans on how he will be an advanced being like Deathstroke/Slade for example of just having better strength and all that fun stuff.**

 **KY: We just wanted to answer those questions due to all the messages that were sent as well as clear the air for everyone, now lets get this started because this is what you all are looking forward to. Lets go!**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or Batman. They are owned by their respective companies.**

 **Chapter 3: Making the Penguin Squeal.**

 **XXXXXX**

 **1:00 P.M. Friday, January 11, 1999**

 **Gotham City Streets**

Cars blared their music in midday as taxi drivers cursed at slow moving pedestrians. Large screens overlooking the streets aired footage of the latest products and television series with the odd commercial of nonsensical TV producer advertisement. Moving through the crowds of people one man whistled down the noisy streets with one place in mind to avoid all the distractions of his birthplace.

" _Here's the place, like always."_ He observed the small out of place shop. An old structure crammed in-between two large shopping places, Martha's Garden was one of the oldest family owned businesses in Gotham with the business being over one-hundred and fifty years old. Known for a rather large selection of exotic plants and flowers, their business has never had trouble bringing in customers, even if they are out of the way by normal standards of this day and age.

Walking through the clinking door Naruto was assaulted with numerous scents. Fresh earth was prevalent around the store as numerous plants and seeds were presented to the eye of the customer.

Going to the back of the store he looked through the flowers section, trying to find the right ones.

"There you are." Reaching out to the flowers of choice his hand inadvertently caught another person's, one smoother and softer than his calloused one.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright, we were reaching for the same white lilies after all." A small smile played over red lips as the owner of said lips stepped back slightly. At 5'8 the woman was stunning in beauty, her emerald eyes and ivory skin giving her an ethereal glow. Red hair flowed down to the middle of her back with a leaf clip holding it to the left side. Her body itself was garbed in a green grass colored coat with yellow button shirt that covered a rather bountiful chest. Below that was a green skirt holdin onto her firm behind and swished over her long, beautiful legs clad in what looked like ivy designed sandals.

He nodded, "Right of course." She smiled slightly, taking the flowers gently in hand and presenting them to him.

"Here, you can have them. You were looking at them pretty intensely so it would be rude of me to take them." Taking them he smiled softly, getting a smile in return from the young woman.

"Oh so you were watching me?" A brow rose in question.

She shook her head in denial, "No, no… Well, maybe a little. You don't seem like the type of person to like flowers."

"How do you figure that?"

"W-well from my experience with plants, flowers and the like I have come across people with like minded interests in the subject and usually they aren't like you. They are knowledgeable yes, but they don't seem to care for the plants themselves when they hold them, unlike the way you are doing right now. It shows that you care for the flowers while they just hold them like their looking for some way to profit off of them.." Naruto hummed, seems the woman was rather passionate about plants if how her tone dropped from a warm one to a chilling, vindictive bite at the end when she mentions her past experiences with people interested in plants like her.

Or more to the point, different than her if his observation was correct.

"I'm impressed, not a lot of people can tell that much about a person they just met simply from how they hold a plant." She smiled nervously at that.

"Ehehe, well I'm just observant is all when it comes to people who enjoy mother nature's gift to the world."

He chuckled, "I don't know if I would go that far, I enjoy nature and all but at the most my involvement with nature is monopolized by my garden at home."

"Ah, that explains your care for the plant. You want to add it to your garden. Do you do it for recreation or do you use it as a herb or veggie supplement for cooking?" She questioned, her excitement growing with the talk of her favorite subject.

He smiled leaning against the shelf, "Well I do it recreationally while a small percent of my garden has veggies and herbs for cooking. As well as…" Naruto paused, shaking his head as he chuckled.

"Wait, wait. I'm getting ahead of myself, here I am talking to you about my garden and I didn't even ask for your name. How rude of me, my apologies." He grinned, extending his hand to her in greeting.

"Hello, my name is Naruto Nguyen. What's your name?"

She smiled softly, reciprocating his action as she shook his hand. "My names Pamela Isley, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance Naruto."

 **XXXXXX**

 **8:05 P.M. Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **Blackgate Penitentiary, Locker Room**

A single white lily hung in a small vase, watered and healthy in a lone locker as blue eyes searched for what was within.

Clothes shifted as armor and clothes fell to the floor, new wears being taken into account as hands grabbed them. With his new assignment, Naruto thought it would be best to not wear his usual uniform if he was going to move through the criminal occupied city. With the gangs and scum of the city moving in more copious groups it would be imperative to not paint a target on his back if he was going to go after a criminal like Penguin.

" _I'll keep out of sight and get what's needed. Just need to put on the right set of clothing to help do so."_ Letting his pants fall he stepped out of them, pulling up baggy dark grey pants with a few pockets down the legs for more storage options as he put his belt through the loops on his waist. Going to his footwear he proceeded to put on black steel toed boots.

Tapping his heel onto the ground a small blade ejected from the toe of his boot making him smile. He still had mementos of his military career that were useful after all, might as well use them. Thinking about his equipment he couldn't help but feel that he would be severely outgunned and outnumbered during the night, with innumerable amounts of men armed with firearms all he had was his rifle and handgun with four clips each on his person and body armor to protect himself. Well, that and his experience and knowledge of combat so that will be a factor as well.

Still no matter how he looked at it, the odds were severely against him.

Clicking his boots on the ground in mild anxiety he went about trying to put on a long sleeved grey and black shirt, just as the door to the locker room opened.

"Naru, you in here? The others told me that… you were….." Blue eyes took in the form of her friend, his rippling muscles on full display as he was putting on his shirt. The material clinging to him as she subconsciously licked her lips at the show playing before her.

Noticing her presence Naruto waved to her as he got up from the bench, "Hey Harl, yeah I'm just changing. You need something?"

"Uh, yeah… I um.." Her words stumbled as she couldn't tear her eyes away from the form fitting clothes.

Putting on his body armor over the shirt Naruto stretched, getting up from his position as he got his muscles to relax. Pulling on a black zip up hoodie he zipped it over the body armor. Kicking open one of the compartments in his locker he picked up a bandolier and put in a few magazines for his respective weapons, strapping it over his left shoulder as it went over his armored chest.

"Harl, I'll be leaving for the city soon." That snapped her out of her daze, grounding her to reality as a long, black trenchcoat went over his shoulders. She bit her lip and made her decision.

Naruto stopped as a pair of arms wrapped around his midsection, a feminine body pressed up against him.

"Harl…."

"Please… Just stay safe… That's all I want…." She whispered into his back.

His eyes closed slightly as he turned, taking her into his arms. "I promise, I will."

 **XXXXXX**

 **8:10, Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **High Above Gotham City**

Leaning back in the seat the blonde suppressed the urge to shiver as the cold winds of the night raged and wafted over him through the open helicopter doors. Sure the armor provided extra warmth but it was still a chilling night under the freezing point as well. Pulling the hood over his head he made sure his face mask stayed set, keeping the lower half of his face warm from the element of cold.

"You ready for this Nguyen?" Gordon asked over the winds, looking over the young cop with a critical eye. He could tell that the man was going over a few mental checks during the flight, assessing himself and his own equipment with a few low whispers to himself. He's done it before in his younger years, hell he still does it just to make sure he has everything when he goes out on assignment. Still, the man was going to be entering a territory full of nothing but hostile individuals with no support other than intelligence provided by the department.

The situation wasn't the best for Naruto.

"I'm ready Sir. Thank you for the added armor by the way, this will help immensely in close combat." Naruto thanked Gordon, motioning to the arm and shin armor provided by Gordon currently on his person under his outer clothes.

Gordon shook his head, "Don't mention it, it's the least I could do. I'm asking a lot of you for doing this anyway." The copter jerked as the winds picked up but reasserted its balance soon after as they descended.

"It's all part of the job, Sir. You're not asking too much from me." The blonde waved off as he looked down at the approaching landing pad on top of GCPD HQ building. Unclipping his seat belt the blonde hooded man held onto the safety grips as the helicopter touched down onto the helipad, jumping down to the ground after the landing.

"Remember, don't take any unnecessary risks Nguyen. I'm counting on you. Radio in when possible to keep us updated on your progress." The Captain called over the helicopters rotor movements.

Nodding to the Captain, Naruto made his way down the stairs of the building till he hit the parking lot under the building. Looking around the dark lot he spotted a familiar shape in the corner, heading over to it immediately.

Letting his eyes take in the vehicle before him he couldn't help the smile from breaking out under his face mask. A black, 1967 Chevy Impala sat in front of him with chrome lining and darkened glass.

"Hey dad, seems like it's going to be one of those nights." He muttered, opening up the car. Getting into the driver's seat he started up the car, revving the engine as he tore his way out of the parking lot and into the Gotham night.

 **XXXXXX**

 **4:00, Wednesday, March 1985**

 **Namikaze Garage.**

"Spanner wrench." A small hand gave the wrench to the man under the vehicle, awed by the seemingly alien machine.

"Ne, Tousan…" The man stopped his actions, moving his grease stained blonde head from under the Chevy as he looked to his son.

"What is it Sochi?" The child rubbed the back of his head bashfully as he looked at the car before him.

"When… When can I start driving?" Minato blinked, thrown off by the question.

"Well, when your older of course Sochi." Naruto pouted at that, crossing his arms at the parent obvious answer. He knew when he was older! He knew that all too well, just when?

"And when is that Tousan? I never get a straight answer with that, it's always 'when you're older Sochi'." He let out a breathe in slight frustration.

"I just want to drive it is all. You've been working on this car since I was a baby and you are still working on it, when can I actually see it work? When can I actually... Drive it?" Minato chuckled, making Naruto snap to him as he got up from under the car.

It was true, he has been working on the 1967 Chevy Impala since Kushina was tested positive for pregnancy. Ever since then Naruto has seen the thing tweaked and tinkered with by his father, new parts being installed into it, seats exchanged, glass taken and exchanged, plating changed with tougher more reliable metals.. Yet, it was never driven before. Always it sat in the garage, waiting for a new piece to be installed or another tire to be pumped.

But, that was only due to Minato's cautious nature as well as his desire to protect his family. He was making something that could protect them from practically anything that life could throw at them, well thats what he was trying to do at least. It still wasn't ready yet after all.

"Tell you what, on your sixteenth birthday we can start getting you ready to drive. And if you're good.. Maybe, in the future, this car can be yours." A large smile broke over his son's face as he jumped from side to side in excitement.

"R-really?! You mean it Tousan?!" Minato nodded, getting a resounding whoop of joy from his son.

"Still Naruto, when you finally handle this machine I want you to know that this just isn't any ordinary car." Naruto stopped at this, listening to what his father had to say.

"This car has a few secrets of its own, and when you find them out you will understand a bit about why I spent so much time on this car." Naruto tilted his head, not understanding what his father meant by secrets.

"Huh? The car has secrets, can cars have secrets?" His hair was ruffled at that. Pouting Naruto pushed his fathers hand away from his hair.

"Yep, they can have secrets Sochi. But trust me, you'll like the secrets Ol' MacGyver has in store for your future…." He smiled, patting the car's hood.

 **XXXXXX**

 **8:28, Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **Jezebel Plaza**

"Hmm, looks like I'm the first one here. Need to find a spot where I can stake this place out unnoticed." Naruto said, parking his car out of the way on the curb of the plaza.

"Guys!" Naruto's musings were cut off as he looked towards the meeting place seeing one of Penguin's cronies sitting on 'Santa's chair' that was on display. He even was wearing a Santa hat figuring he would feel festive on the holiday. For a better look, Naruto had pulled out his binoculars from his position so he can get a more indepth look of what he is dealing with. _"Hmm, seems the punk in the Santa hat is in charge of this operation."_ Naruto thought looking over the arrogant man.

"So little boys - what do you want for Christmas? Oh wait. I already know." 'Loose Lips' said as he snapped his fingers getting the thug next to him to open up a briefcase containing some illegal weaponry for the deal going down. The buyers handed them over another briefcase towards 'Loose Lips' for the exchange.

"Now let's see if you've been naughty or…Nice." 'Loose Lips said as he started chuckling in a demented Santa Claus laugh when he opened up the briefcase. From Naruto's perspective through his binoculars he thought he saw a goldish glow coming from the case and for a brief moment Naruto thought that was impossible.

" _Ok... I don't know if that is possible at all. Are the buyer's pulling a Pulp Fiction moment here with a glowing case. Are they selling a soul here or something?"_ Naruto thought since for that moment just screamed Pulp Fiction rip off right there on the reference but shook his head as he saw one of the buyers step up to the weapon to put it together to form an advanced sniper/assault rifle hybrid of sorts.

"So where's the rest of them?" One of the buying thugs asked.

"Easy tiger. When you deal with us, you're dealing with the Penguin. This ain't some fly-by-night operation." 'Loose Lips' said.

"Let's see'em then. We didn't come all the way down here just for one gun." Another buyer said.

"Yes, but these aren't just any ol' guns you're buyin'. Think of them like a fine wine - and I am your sommelier. I want you to taste it - try it out. Making sure your getting an acceptable purchase." 'Loose Lips' said.

"Ok I think it might be time for me to crash this exchange." Naruto mused to himself as he made his way over to the thugs to catch them by surprise.

Pulling out his 9Mm he lined up his sights with the one with the assault rifle and shot his head to bits, shocking the thugs at their comrades sudden death. The immediate threat was taken care of, now for the small nuisances.

Charging the criminals Naruto grabbed two of them by their necks and smashed their skulls together. Letting go of the two unconscious men he flipped over a thrown punch from the left, landing behind the thug and kicked his back sending him into two of his associates.

"Agh!" He grunted as he slammed into them, knocking them out from the force of the impact.

Sweeping feet off of the ground of a crook from behind Naruto sent a strong armed punch straight into his chest, sending him into the snowy road with a crash. Hearing rushing feet he twisted to the right, dodging a pipe meant for his skull. Lashing out with precise strikes of his palms at the opposing arms Naruto rendered the once useable limbs broken as the bones snapped, eliciting a scream from the man only for him to be silenced with a palm strike to the throat.

"Disappointing." He grunted as he felt a punch make contact with his back, not moving him in the slightest as he looked over his shoulder to the quivering man that did the deed. Moving in a blur of motion Naruto kneed the man in the gut, following with an elbow to the back of the neck and twisted in a flourish bringing down his foot onto his skull. The bone of his opponent's skull made a rather satisfying sound as he felt a few things break and shatter into the ground from the impact as it moved past the snow to hit the unforgiving road under it.

Getting up slowly Naruto cast his eyes to LeBlanc, his cerulean orbs seemed to glow in the shadow of his hood obscuring his upper face with his mask serving as an ever moving shadow.

"Let's talk…." His voice ever chilling as he moved to LeBlanc, closing the distance in a blink of an eye as the man retreated in fear. The man seemed to tower over Loose Lips as his eyes bore into his unnerving the arms dealer greatly.

"Ok ok I give up." 'Loose Lips said before he pulled out a switchblade in hopes of stabbing the masked fighter. This proved futile as Naruto caught the arm and emphasizing large amounts of pressure on it for the thug to let go of the weapon as he felt his bones crack. Next thing 'Loose Lips' knew was being thrown towards 'Santa's chair' with the 'Pulp Fiction' briefcase hitting him in the face.

"Get away!" 'Loose Lips' yelled as Naruto made his way over to the thug. Said thug held up the briefcase up for possible cover before Naruto kicked him hard enough to have the chair break and 'Loose Lips' sailed back a few feet with dollar bills flying about.

"No….NO!" 'Loose Lips' screamed as Naruto picked him up at the scruff of his neck.

"Where's the Penguin!?" Naruto said.

"I-I don't know…" 'Loose Lips' said as he was choking out from the pressure Naruto was putting in his grip.

"Where is he?" Naruto said as he hoisted him up higher. His hand beginning to crush the man's airways as his patience was thinning.

"I swear…. I...don't know." was all 'Loose Lips' said before he passed out.

"Damn. He passed out on me. Figures. " Naruto said as he dropped 'Loose Lips' onto the ground before he tried to think of a way to get the information out of him. He had a stray thought when glancing towards the building above and thought of hanging 'Loose Lips' from that high in hopes of getting the info from him. Of course that would require a lot of work of finding a way to actually get up there, carry the unconscious body up there and hanging him up for the likely scenario…..Yeah he is not gonna do that since right now he needs every moment he can get to take care of things before things go out of hand. Plus even though he was capable of such a method of questioning time was not something he had much of.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a cell phone go off and looked down towards 'Loose Lips' and realized that he could of just gotten the info from his phone if possible. Once acquiring the phone, he opened up the contact listings and found the address book to where Penguin was located. Seems that his current residence is at the harbor inside one of the ships labeled 'The Final Offer'. Honestly, people just left such information on their phones. Really not that smart of the man.

With his information acquired he now had a destination to get to after he put the phone back where it belonged. Frowning slightly he took LeBlanc and tied him up in the chair with Christmas lights around the plaza to be picked up for arrest. Before he left he went to the briefcase to see what was actually in it and opened it up.

"Huh...So thats what it was." Naruto said, not impressed from the payment as he closed it back up and left on his merry way.

After driving for a while towards the harbor, he decided to radio in to Gordon to give him an update on the progress on things.

"Gordon, Gordon do you read? Nguyen here." Naruto said over the radio.

" _Gordon here. Good to hear from you Nguyen. Any progress so far?"_ Gordon asked over the radio.

"Yes, I was able to acquire the location where Penguin is holding up. His current base of operations is at 'The Final Offer' at the harbor but I need to know where exactly it's docked so I can safely navigate a good distance to get over there." Naruto said.

" _Ah ok, give me a second."_ Gordon said as Naruto waited for a bit before Gordon came back on. _"Ok the ship is currently docked at...pier 13 at the harbor. Nguyen, let us know when to show up so we can go in and do the proper arrests."_ Gordon told Naruto, following the procedure as he was taught and lived by.

"Will do. Also you should send a squad over to Jezebel Plaza to arrest some of Penguin's men and some buyers for a deal that went on. I already took care of them with the leader of the group being tied up. Had to shoot the one with the illegal arms on him or else I would of ended up dead." Naruto said

" _Good to know Nguyen. Gordon signing out."_ Gordon said as he closed off his connection on the radio.

Now with his destination finalized, he had mentally mapped out where pier 13 was located so he can park his car a safe distance away so he can make the rest of the way on foot.

He soon made it a good hundred yards or so away from docks and once exiting his car, he made it to his trunk and lifted up a false cover to show a wide range of weapons and gadgets his dad surprisingly left for him and some that Naruto had added in over the years after his time in the military. A lot of them are indeed registered and licensed but he only used the armed weapons in the firing range when possible but now it seemed he might have to use them in the field.

Carefully picking a few items that he thought would work best here, he pulled out a second handgun with a few extra magazines just in case and a handful of homemade smoke and flash bombs if he needed some cover. He also brought up a silencer for each of his guns just in case if he needed to fire his gun in a quiet setting and possibly in this case he would need it. Of course he pulled out his AR-15, just for caution as he didn't know if he would get into a scrape in the boat. Finally the last items he pulled out were his military issued Kukri and Ranger knives.

Once locking up his car, Naruto went off in a jogging pace towards 'The Final Offer' until he spotted a few of Penguin's guards patrolling the area. In pairs of two there were two patrols, each going back and forth in front of the large boating vessel. From what he could see there was no bridge to get onto the boat, meaning he would have to find his own way onto the vessel.

" _Is there anything that I can use to get onto the boat…"_ He mused, moving behind a crate a few feet away from the patrols as he looked above and around himself for an opportunity to use. No tools he could see, but.. That winch to his left looked promising, its chain dangling over the boat just high enough to drop down onto the deck of the boat. It seemed to have just enough wear in it's structure for some improvised climbing.

" _I'll need to take care of the patrolling guards before I begin climbing up the winches structure. If I don't they could easily shoot me down."_ Blue eyes narrowed as the first patrol passed him, joking around as they didn't seem to mind their surroundings. Turning his head he saw that the other patrol was on the other side of the boat, optimally away from his position and the guards patrolling his area.

Sneaking up from behind without making a sound the hooded man grabbed the guards by the back of their heads and slammed them into the ground, with a well placed stomp to the head for added measure, leaving them out of conscious thought. Pulling their unconscious bodies out of view from the incoming guards Naruto dragged them behind a set of large cargo crates, making sure to break down their rifles so that when they awoke they wouldn't have any way to resist arrest when the police arrive later.

Looking from the left side of the crate he could see the other patrol passing him by, giving him his window of attack. Dashing at them from behind he lashed out with a spinning kick, breaking the right guards hand making him drop his weapon and sent him sprawling to the ground with a right hook. Before the other could react he was in similar pain as his hand was crushed and his skull was met with a gloved fist, blackening his vision as he lost consciousness.

Breaking their weapons as well Naruto turned to the winch, rubbing his hands together for warmth as he psyched himself up for the long climb.

"Just don't look down and just keep climbing, that's all it takes." Rationalizing the climb he grabbed onto one of the beams holding the structure up, carefully he jumped from beam to beam ascending to the top of the structure overlooking the boat. Balancing on the top of the winch arm Naruto grit his teeth as he focused on getting to the end without the wind trying to knock him off the winch.

Finally getting to the end he eased himself down, wrapping his arms and legs round the chain as he slowly climbed down it to the deck below. Getting to the end of the chain the man let go, landing in a crouch as he made his way around the deck of the ship. Seeing that a sniper was in the crow's nest up top Naruto attached a silencer to his rifle. Better to be on the safe side so as to not tip anyone off that he was on the ship. Getting back a bit he lined up his sights, aiming for the snipers heart. Pulling the trigger the man promptly fell as his chest burst in a shower of blood. Putting his rifle onto his back again he noticed a red light cross over the area he was in.

Ducking on instinct he was able to dodge a shot to the chest from a sniper crouching on a far off metal crate.

"There's someone over there! Tear him a new asshole!" The sniper yelled, pointing to Naruto's location. Growling in irritation Naruto dropped a smoke bomb, covering his area in smoke as a group of thugs got to his location.

" _Shit! He must've seen the other sniper get shot, following the line of fire to me. No matter, he won't be a problem... "_ Naruto thought, firing a round right into the snipers heart from the smoke just as a thug was upon him. Swinging wildly the man had no chance as the buttstock of his AR was slammed into the thugs face, making him fall with a broken nose. Ducking low Naruto brought his weapon up in a swing, breaking the next thugs testicles as he sent him flying out of the smoke with a kick. Jumping onto the railing Naruto let loose a quick burst of bullets into a few of the armed thugs approaching him from the bottom of the cargo hold killing them quickly as he didn't want to waste time. He'll just chalk them up as collateral damage, no need to worry about telling Gordon about them.

Making his way down to the cargo hold he made quick work of the two guards in front of what looked like the entrance to the lower levels of the ship. Seems henchmen were nothing special when given the right punch here and there. When he moved over their unconscious bodies he heard one of their radio's go off.

" _Alright everyone, listen up, Penguin here. I know I oughtta cancel our annual Boiler Deck fights after what happened tonight at Jezebel Plaza, but just to show you what a nice guy I am, the fights are still on. So go get yourselves to the ship if you want in on this, which will start in less than an hour."_ Penguin said over the radio.

" _Hmm, seems I might have an opportunity in to sneak up on Penguin. I'll have to blend in as best as possible. I do wonder though how Penguin could've known of what went on at Jezebel Plaza unless some of his goons dropped on by and saw what happened and reported in. In any case I need to get going."_ He mused, tossing the thug's radio to the side as he went through the ship's entrance.

Once inside, he noticed that there was only one guard seated at the gated entrance. He then saw past the gate of another guard making his rounds before turning back to go down the hallway. Naruto would need to get past those two before continuing further and he doesn't want to start off any alarms. Opportunity called as the one guard stood up from his seat and turned around to do some stretches. Naruto decided to sneak up on the guard before covering his mouth and putting him in a sleeper hold as he placed him back onto his seat to make it seem he dozed off.

Once past the gate, he hugged the wall and peaked towards the side to see how far of a distance the other guard was and saw him drawing closer to his position. Naruto timed it just right to nab the guard and slammed him against the wall before knocking him out. From there, Naruto had nabbed the guard's gun to be sure he can hopefully pass off as one of Penguin's thugs if he gets caught for a brief moment. Navigating his way through the halls he soon came across a room filled with half a dozen or so thugs lying about.

Taking a breath, he opened the door and started walking through the room at a nice, steady pace so that no one would notice him or pay him no mind. The intercoms soon blared to life with Penguin chatting through it breaking everyone's concentration.

" _Welcome, welcome to this year's Boiler Deck fights! You know, I always get a laugh outta you first round lot. That's why I keep you boy's 'round. Well that an' I need someone to clean out the pisser! Oh an' don't think I didn't notice those of you who didn't bet on yourselves. You're either cheap or lacking confidence. Neither are desirable qualities. I'll sort out you lot after the tourney. But let's get started! Who's ready for some action?"_ Penguin said over the intercoms before he ended it.

"Sweet, can't miss out on this. Going to head over there now." One of the thugs said before he bumped into Naruto getting the thug to take notice of him.

"Wait a minute." The thug said before Naruto butted the gun against the thug's face before using the gun as a club to knock him out. This action caused the other thugs in the room to notice what Naruto did and started going at him.

Naruto evaded several punches towards his person as he fired a few lucky shots from his acquired gun at the thugs getting them to fall to the ground either dead or badly wounded with a fatal shot. He soon elbowed one of the thugs coming from behind and punched him a few times before he is able to knock him out. He ran towards another thug before lunging at him successfully knocking him to the ground and bashed his head in with the rifle, then making his way to the last thug in the room. The thug evaded a few of Naruto's punches before he threw a punch at the intruder. Naruto caught the arm before he threw him over his shoulder before he turned around and kicked him sending him to some armored crates knocking him out with a sever blow to the head. Dropping the spent weapon he clapped his hands, making his way out of the room of defeated men.

Once out of the room he could see the area in a red light with water dripping everywhere. His nose wrinkled at the unpleasant stench and ignored it for now.

" _All available hands report to aft deck four. Engine room's starting to flood. Needs to be pumped out pronto."_ A female voice said over the intercom as he navigated through the corridors. The corridors were indeed flooding, probably from how long the place wasn't touched up and hadn't had a good maintenance in who knows how long. From all of the broken walls, cracked ceilings and fire in some areas. Yes, there is indeed fire in some of the rooms but surprisingly the fire hasn't built up over time.

Naruto had to jump through some gaps and slowly moved through some tight beams in a 'tight rope' walk before he was able to get onto a nice, sizeable floor. He soon came onto a ledge and saw about five thugs in a small area and they were spread out to hopefully cover the area. Naruto soon brought out one of his handguns and attached a silencer to it before taking aim and quickly shot each of the thugs in the head. Naruto soon backed up some feet till he ran and jumped off of the ledge before tucking and rolling so he wouldn't hurt himself in the landing.

He soon saw that he was blocked off with a lot of water in his way and guessed that it will be like that for a while. Needing to get past this, he had to look around to see if there was someway he can navigate. Naruto was able to find a good, long rope and a hook on the end from one of the dead bodies before a thought came to mind. He emptied a nearby crate and dropped it into the water before balancing himself so he can be stable for what he will do next.

Naruto threw the hooked rope to several ends of each watery hallway as he navigated through for a bit before reaching the end with a high ledge. He threw the rope up on it and climbed up. Reaching the top the rope soon snapped, prompting him to grab onto the edge as the rope fell into the icy water below. Haulin himself up he went to navigate through the corridors once again before he opened a door.

"Come on now, I've seen school girls with more grit." Penguin said through the other side of the opened wall as Naruto saw that he had reached the fighting arena. He went up to the door on the other side before realizing that it was locked.

"Alright lads, the rest of you losers-to-be, are gonna have to embarrass yourselves without me. God knows you can do it. I got some business to take care of in me office and I don't want to be disturbed. Tracey'll be running the fights till I get back." Penguin said as Naruto figured that is where he needed to get to next but he'll need to talk to this Tracey to find out where the office is.

He walked up the stairs and went through some halls until he reached a dead end...or so he thought. He looked up and saw an opened ventilation shaft before he climbed up and crawled on through. It was big enough for him to go on through but he soon realized that it was creaking on the bottom with each movement he took. He figured that at the other end of the vent would lead to another room that he can possibly navigate through to Penguin's office or a connecting room of sorts.

Unfortunately his thought process was rudely interrupted with the vent underneath him breaking getting his heart to skip a beat and his eyes to dilate before he fell through to the fighting arena below.

"SHIT!" Naruto yelled as he fell from so high and ended up falling on two thugs that were on each other continuing their fight. The two ended up breaking Naruto's fall with him ending up crushing them and killing them right on the spot. Naruto groaned as he got back up and dusted himself off before noticing that everyone was staring at him.

"Well fuck..." Was all Naruto said before he noticed a bleached blonde woman in a white, 'sexy' business attire walk up to the railing before climbing up on it.

"Now there's a naughty geeza. Proper naughty. An'e deserves a right proper welcome. Don'e lads?" The woman said as she turned back and looked towards an armored man on top of the stairs. "Why don't we let our special guest start things off. I give you the electrifying, Electrocutioner."

"Well thank you for the introduction Tracey. You know I need to have myself a warm up before I go up against the Batman. I might as well start out with you." Electrocutioner said as he made his way towards the railing.

"I'm-a kill you. Then. I'm-a jump start your heart- and kill you again!" He said as he slammed his armored gloves on the railing getting electrical arcs to come off from him and blowing up several Christmas lights due to power overload. He soon jumped off and landed on the fighting arena getting sparks to come off of him. Electrocutioner soon slammed one of his arms onto the ground getting an electrical wave to rush towards Naruto with him ignoring the shock as his boots were not electrically conductive. Electrocutioner turned around with his arms in the air before he addressed his audience.

"ARE YOU READY!?" Electrocutioner yelled getting the Penguin thugs to cheer out before he put his attention towards the masked intruder.

"I'm looking for Black Mask. Where is he?" Naruto said getting his opponent to laugh at him. This in turn had blue eyes narrow in annoyance as his fists curled in slight anger and agitation.

"Like I'll ever tell you, whoever you are. Even if I wanted to, I ain't going to talk since I'll be kicking your ass." Electrocutioner said in an arrogant tone with more sparks coming off of him.

"Ok, if you're going to be that way. So be it. This is your last chance though." Naruto said with their fight starting up.

"This fight'll be two hits. Me hittin' you, and you hitting 50,000 volts." Electrocutioner said as he was about to attack…..before he noticed Naruto jumped towards him and kicked him square in the jaw.

The assassin soon landed on the ground with a loud thud, clearly knocked out, getting the thug audience to quickly shut up on the display.

"More like me hitting you, and you hitting the floor with a possible broken jaw." Naruto said as he looked up and addressed the on lookers. "Now who will show me where the Penguin is?"

"Alright you lousy mugs, time t'earn your supper." Tracey said as Naruto saw a bunch of thugs jumping over the railings and running over to Naruto to either kill him or knock him out. "You poncey wankers let him get to Cobblepot - it'll be the last thing ya do."

The first wave of thugs were heading towards him and the first thug that threw the first punch was quickly countered with Naruto ducking to avoid the hit and giving him an uppercut before grabbing the thugs head and slammed it against another thug. Dashing to the procession of opponents Naruto didn't hold back.

Naruto made quick successions with each of the following thugs with elbow strikes towards several areas of the body when quickly switching from opponent to opponent. Even dodging the various hits on his person with minimal ease since none of them had militarized training on how to fight against various opponents from hand to hand combat. Naruto's movements were fluid as he jumped away and kicked opponents left and right that to some it seemed they were looking at a blur with how the masked intruder is moving so quickly. He had purposely taken some hits so he can grab some offending limbs and break them.

"He's here lookin' for Cobblepot, boys. Let's make sure he don't find 'im. An'ee you don' want a piece of what I'm offerin', get down'ere and sort 'im out!"

The next wave of goons started showing up and they started wising up to bring in weapons this time instead of just going into a brawl. This in turn got up and close as Naruto beat some of them to submission before grabbing a pair of short lead pipes lying on the ground and used them as fighting sticks. Naruto made quick successions of smacking the thugs' heads around with the pipes for extra damage before hitting other thugs' hands to disarm them of their weapons on hand. Blocking several punches and kicks with the weapons on hand before he ducked from a few opponents and spin kicked a few of them to get them on the ground before he immobilized them. Even ducking several times before he headbutted them, quickly grabbing their heads and slamming them down on his knee before he threw them at the other thugs.

"Boys! Fightin' like this is giving Cobblepot a bad name." Tracey said as she noticed that the masked intruder was winning wave after wave of the Penguin's men. "Ay! Are you lot 'and a'earin'?"

Wave after wave the thugs were being demolished as the masked intruder was taking care of them like they were nothing. Twisting away from a few strikes he threw the pipes at a pair of thugs' heads knocking them out. The intruder then pulled out a pair of hand guns and started shooting the thugs in quick succession, killing them or critically injuring them as he knocked several opponents out with the butt of his guns when attacked. Getting up and personal when dashing towards the Penguin's goons he smacked them around before he flipped over some of them and grabbed the back of their jackets to throw them at his other opponents.

Naruto kept on dodging and kicking his opponents as he made quick work with him blocking the various hits before shooting the thugs in either the chest or in the face. Not wasting any movements as he kept on going through several magazines of his guns as he blocked several hits with his legs before he kicked his opponents away. Realizing that he was starting to run low on ammunition he put his guns away before he pulled out his Kukri and Ranger knives as he kept on attacking his opponents.

"Bugger it all! You lads sure are a disappointment. To the Casino then. Someone's gotta warn Cobblepot of what's comin' his way." Tracey said as she quickly left the arena to contact her boss.

Naruto dashed towards several goons slashing their tendons on either their arms and legs to make them useless along with stabbing a few of them when switching hand positions going with reverse grips or regular. Didn't matter anyways as he finished up the last of the goons before there was only one left standing.

"Please! I'm tapping out! Don't hurt me!" the remaining thug said as he lifted his arms up in surrender.

Naruto had wiped the blood off of his knives on a random thug before putting them away as he made his way towards the last begging one. He soon grabbed him by the throat and hoisted him up in the air.

"Now, where is Cobblepot?" Naruto said as he narrowed his eyes on the thug.

"I ain't telling you jack." The thug said as he started feeling his throat constrict in the masked intruder's grip.

"A little more pressure and I'll crush your larynx. What's it going to be?" Naruto said as he applied a bit more pressure before the thug decided to give up.

"Alright alright I give. He's in his office. Only way in is through the theater which is on the other side of the casino. But you'll never get past Tracey." The thug said as he struggled to breathe.

"Tracey will not be a problem." Was all Naruto said before he punched the thug in the face resulting him to blackout.

Looking around the room, Naruto needed to find an exit so he can get to the casino and find Penguin from there. He then spotted the short lead pipes he used earlier in the fight and decided to strap them onto his person to use as good melee weapons for now. Probably when this is all over he'll have to get some better ones to put into good old MacGyver. He also checked his magazines to see how many bullets he has left since he used quite a bit in that brawl so now he'll have to find some bullets when possible before he restocks in his car.

Naruto saw an exit on the other side of the arena and went on through to start navigating through the endless corridors. He had to jump over some gaps along the way and sliding underneath some low spots due to large pipes blocking his path. He eventually made it towards an icy wall when the intercom blared to life.

" _If Mister Cobblepot finishes with 'is guest and finds out you numpty prats let that intruder spoil his Boiler Deck fights - what do you think he's gonna do to you lot? Think about it lads!"_ Tracey said over the intercom as Naruto was figuring out a way to get past the icy wall. He noticed that there were some cracks towards the center that got him to start kicking on it in hopes of breaking through. His action came through but his leg felt tired in the end and with a slight bit of pain but he'll get over it.

He soon made his way towards what appeared to be an engine room of sorts or even a coolant room. Couldn't fully tell since his main thoughts were of how he can go towards the top. He soon saw a bolted ladder a bit aways from him on the other side from a gap, so he stepped back a bit. Naruto soon went into a sprint before leaping towards the ladder and grabbed onto it for a bit to catch his breath before moving up. He then noticed after one step some feet into the climb, the ladder was breaking right under him due to the quality of the ladder. Crumbling it broke off falling down below. Quickening his climb he began to outpace the breakage.

Once making it towards the top he then took notice of the rest of surroundings of what he would of had to deal with if he didn't take the ladder from hanging onto a ledge in the middle of the room and would've dealt with some long distance jumps from the side.

" _Alright you lousy mugs, we're on full alert. I want updates, updates, updates! Anyone seen the intruder? Is he still even on the bloody ship? This is serious lads!"_ Tracey said over the intercoms again. Naruto was starting to get tired of her talking as he went through the door to reach the upper deck of the ship.

He soon reached a corner of a hallway and peaked towards the side to see three thugs hanging around a fenced door with an electrical grid on top for some odd reason, possibly to make it look seem intimidating. Naruto decided to pull out one of his silenced guns aiming and quickly firing a bullet for each of the thugs into their heads before moving forward. He decided that he wouldn't wait that long so he checked each of the thugs to see if they have the right sized bullets to reload his gun. Luckily they did have them and in extra magazines so that helped out a bit.

" _Oy! I got a message for the masked intruder - from your mate the Electrocutioner. Back on 'is feet he is - and he says you may have won this round - but the fight is far from over. He'll be back for ya, whoever you are. So watch your arse!"_ Tracey said over the intercom once more.

"Crap, the guy must of woken up on my way over here. Should've tied him up earlier and called for backup. Then again there was nothing that was reachable to tie him up with. Well what's done is done I suppose. Can't do anything on that now. Just need to find the Penguin and get the hell out of here. I can catch Electrocutioner another time." Naruto said out loud as he soon noticed that he reached a dead end with the door being boarded up. Looking for a way to continue he soon moved things around to see for a possible entrance before he saw a vent behind a hanging curtain.

He needed to get past the ventilation cover so had to look for a crowbar of sorts to which he remembered one was with one of the thugs' corpse. Once acquiring it, he made his way back to the vent and pried it open, breaking from the task as the vent was accessed. Throwing the remains of the crowbar he looked back. He had a feeling he would need another crowbar for some reason. He looked on back towards the room to see if there was one lying around. Finally he was able to find one on top of a crate and took it before he made his way through the vent which lead him towards the end. He then kicked the vent cover a few times before it gave way as he exited it towards a hallway leading to a bar with the entrance to the casino right in front of it. He decided to rest for a bit and thought it would be time to call Gordon and a small task force to start heading on over.

"Nguyen to Gordon. Nguyen to Gordon. Do you copy?" Naruto said over the radio.

" _Gordon here. Good to hear from you Nguyen. What's your status?"_ Gordon said.

"Well I'm currently in the upper deck of 'The Final Offer' and taking a small break to rest after navigating through this trash heap of a ship. I'm almost to Penguin's location but it'll take a bit of time before I make it in the end." Naruto said as he walked on over towards the bar and looked through to see if he could find some regular water to quench his thirst.

" _Thats good to hear. Was there anything else that happened over there?"_ Gordon asked as Naruto was able to find some water through one of the barely workable mini fridges.

"Yeah, I ran into one of Black Mask's assassins that went by the name of Electrocutioner and was able to subdue and rendered him unconscious and went into a brawl with quite a number of Penguin's goons. He managed to get away as I made my way further into the ship." Naruto said before he started drinking a few bottles of water.

" _Hmm that doesn't sound good at all Nguyen, seems like we may have to get our hands dirty if there is so many personnel on board. But we'll cross that bridge soon enough. Give me an estimate time for us to begin the arrest of Penguin and his men."_ Gordon said as Naruto figured that his superior was starting to get anxious to make an arrest tonight if his tone was anything to go by.

"Give me thirty minutes tops before you make your way over here if I don't radio back by that time. I'll get things done as soon as possible." Naruto stated.

" _Good to know. Is there anything else I should know?"_ Gordon asked again.

"Yeah, getting onto the ship is not going to be fun with no possible way to get aboard on foot. You would either have to come in through helicopters or when I exit the ship I'll lower the access for you and your men to get aboard." Naruto said as he was ready to go through the casino to deal with Tracey.

" _Alright then, we'll wait to hear from you then. Gordon out."_ The captain said as Naruto heard the line go dead.

Once opening the door to the casino, Naruto was able to spot a few guards walking about in the center of the room with his elevated position. He ducked down as he made his way towards the bottom and hid behind one of the roulette tables as he pulled out one of his silenced weapons again to shoot the guards in the head. It went smoothly and he soon looked up to see a security room of sorts with a metal barrier covering the window and towards each side of the room the only other exits: one would lead to Penguin and the other could lead to the security room. Naruto decided to go to the security room first so he can be sure to properly navigate the rest of the way to Penguin safely, getting out of the ship in the quickest manner and possibly get the GCPD able to access the boat on foot.

He spotted another vent cover and went towards it to pry it open and went through it towards an opening with a possible security code box for the casino's exit. As he made his way over there he saw a few other thugs on the other side of the chain linked fence and pulled out his gun to shoot them in the head to get rid of further problems. Naruto then put his focus on the security box and broke the top off so he could hotwire it and get the one door to open. After a bit of tinkering he was able to open up the door before he made his way through the vent again and walked through the now accessible door.

Naruto soon saw an elevator at the end of the one hallway and accessed it and went on up. He soon started hearing Tracey's voice talking to someone and Naruto assumed she was on the phone. Once he stepped out of the elevator he soon dropped into the room of the conversation as he hugged the wall and peaked over to see the layout of the room.

"Come on Candy. You're just on the other side of the theater. Step out for a sec and give me a 'and." Tracey said over the phone in a pleading tone. She was pacing back and forth through the room to show signs of her being very worried. Right next to her was a cage for some odd reason with the security system a few feet away from it.

" _Uh-uh, I can't. He's doin' business. You know what that means."_ Candy said over the phone with the volume set on high.

"Yeah. Means someone's gettin' hurt. But we got serious issues out 'ere." Tracey said as she sat on down on the chair in front of the security systems.

" _C'mon Trace. You got a whole boat full a'brawlers. An what 'bout that 'Lectrocuter? He's a nasty one you'll be fine."_ Candy said trying to get her friend to calm down.

"I'm tellin' you - he's not some pounce in a fancy suit. He's naughty, really naughty. An'es moppin' the floor with our best 'n brightest. Not that that's sayin' too much. An' as for the Electrocutioner, the masked intruder knocked him out an' when he woke up he just up an' left after telling me so. Saying that he's going back to his boss an' lick his wounds until he can find the Batman." Tracey said as she turned around facing the security system and Naruto decided to wait for the phone call to end before he does any further action or else he'll alarm Candy and Penguin.

" _I don't know. Just handle it sista! He's callin' me back in. Laters."_ Candy said as the line went dead. With hearing that Naruto slowly made his way up to Tracey to knock her out.

"Candy! Uggh! Now I'm really deep in it! She's earned 'erself a dry slap, she 'as." Tracey said as she brought her hands to her head in frustration. That was the last thing she did before she blacked out as Naruto sneaked up on her and chopped the back of her neck to get her to go out like a light. He soon brought her into the cage and laid her against one of the walls, closing the cage before he put his focus towards the system.

This was going to be tricky now since hacking wasn't always his forte and he didn't have the proper equipment to hack into the system. He was thinking of several things of how to get into it since he didn't want to sound the alarms, but he needed to get the GCPD onto the boat safely and the only way to do that was to access the security system. Only it was password encrypted and he wasn't the best when it came to hacking.

Naruto soon glanced towards one of the screens and saw a sticky note with the message _'Password of the day is_ _ **MAKE A DEAL**_ _.'_ He figured that Penguin has his security password changed everyday so no one can access it from a different day that one password was given. Of course it was stupid to actually have it written down right next to the computers but as of right now he is not complaining. Just made his job that much simpler.

Once accessing the servers and figuring out where things were, he disabled the alarms and had gotten the GCPD access onto the boat with the accessible entrance now open. He also checked on how much farther he is from Penguin's position by looking through several camera feeds and saw how many thugs he will have to take care of along the way there.

"It shouldn't be too far, just a few rooms away…. Just have to unlock a few doors… Go through a hallway and a gallery of sorts and I'm there." He mused, unlocking the path to Penguin's office as the door below was no longer barred. Turned out that it had a secondary lock for extra measure.

Turning from the console Naruto ran to the large window now no longer blocked by metal barriers and dashed to it. Jumping through the glass he flipped in the air, tucking and rolling himself just as he hit the ground.

Dusting himself off Naruto approached the unlocked doors. Pulling them open he jumped to the side as a pair of large hands reached from the opened doors to grab him. Moving quickly Naruto smashed one of the pipes onto the wrists of the opposing limbs, getting a grunt from the large man as his wrist snapped. Moving the doors closed the blonde followed up with slamming them all the way closed, trapping the arms of the attacker between them as he could hear the pained scream from the man.

Grinning Naruto stomped his boot onto the ground making a blade protrude from it. Flinging the doors open, Naruto jumped at the still screaming man with a boot meeting his head as the blade dug into his skull. Shaking slightly the man tried to resist only for a renewed twist of the foot to dislodge the blade and bring forth a fountain of blood from the corpses skull.

Dropping to the ground as the body fell in a heap Naruto spun to the left, dodging a tackle from a thug. Turning to try and get the masked intruder the thug was met with a blade to the stomach with a fist soon meeting his jaw sending him to the ground. Dashing to the next victim the masked blonde flipped into the air, slamming his foot into the man sending him face down into the floor.

Grunting he pulled out his knife and Kukri, spinning them in each hand as he approached the last of the thugs. Their faces belaying fear as he was upon them.

Spinning, dodging, and weaving around them his blades cut into their flesh with ease as they screamed and gurgled their last breaths. In seconds, the seven men were dead on their feet, their arteries cut and leaking blood as their bodies fell to the floor in a heap.

"I'm getting tired of all these damn people getting in my way. I swear if there's another room full of these idiots I'm slaughtering them all, weapons or no. I don't have time for this shit." Muttered Naruto as he wiped his blades on a corpses clothes. Passing through the doors in front of him, he walked through the hallway to find himself in a theatre of sorts, in the upper balconies to be more precise as a door next to the stage could be visible from where he stood.

Unfortunately there was more people in the room as well, from what he could tell all armed with rifles as he gnashed his teeth in anger at the constant patrols of guards. With a twitch of his eye Naruto pulled his rifle from his back since he didn't use it earlier due to some fights earlier and using it would of been too close for comfort. He locked and loaded a magazine into his assault rifle taking stock of all the guards he could see as he let his breathe slow. His world coming to focus as the guards seemed to slow down, his eyes narrowed as his finger pulled the trigger.

Bullets ignited and flew from his barrel, seeking a home in the meat down below. Finding their awaited homes the metal projectiles made due with their newly dead houses in a shower of explosive gore spilling from their wounds. Huffing Naruto walked down the stairs, his eyes taking in every detail as he fired to his left killing the last guard, or maybe he wasn't one of Penguins guards he didn't know nor did he care. All he knew was that the room was clear if their was no commotion going on after he killed so many guards.

Letting his breathing come back to normal things seemed to snap back to focus as he was hit with a painful headache, ignoring it for a bit he let his heart beat settle as he went through the motions. His body seized up as his breathe hitched but he grit his teeth as he breathed out evenly, making the pain settle as he controlled his heartbeat. He never got used to the… well what he did, still hasn't thought of name for his above average reaction speed, though the stress on his body he could do without. He should make sure not to use it too often, otherwise his body would give out if he wasn't careful. Also to control his emotions better, using it due to frustration and fatigue was not a good enough reason. Only in dire situations, as he was taught by his teachers.

Once opening up the door he soon saw there was yet another hallway but it was short this time and he was somewhat glad for the spacing since he didn't want to alert Penguin at the other side of the door. Once reaching it he quietly opened it and heard a bit of commotion from inside as he hugged the wall and peaked to see what was going on.

"Now where were we Candy?" The Penguin asked as Candy, a glasses wearing African American woman in a black, 'sexy' business attire, walked towards the tied up torture victim with his arms and legs strapped to the chair.

"You suggested little Alberto over here -hey baby-" Candy said as she smiled at the beaten up Falcone crime family heir before she made her way to the table, "...to convince his father to take an early retirement. He disagreed… and called you a… Let's see… _'psychotic little bastard'_."

Cobblepot started walking towards Alberto and with every few steps he brought his umbrella hard to the ground to unnerve the tortured victim and scaring him slightly more and more. Even with a few armed guards behind him and surrounding the rest of the room to show emphasis that he won't be able to make it out alive if he tried to get out.

"No… No no no no! Please!" The Falcone heir pleaded until the rough end of the Penguin's umbrella slammed against his stomach. He coughed and wheezed as Cobblepot laughed at his demise. His torturer had spit out a loogy before one of his armed goons brought out a cigar of his prefered brand and lit it up for him. Penguin appreciated the gesture before he inhaled a large amount of smoke and breathed it all out onto Alberto's face, making him cough more.

"Now you best listen Falcone… 'cos this is the last time I'll _ask_." Cobblepot said as he put more emphasis on 'ask' when he put his umbrella down and turned on his high voltage, cattle prod. He then grabbed the young man's hair and pulled it back as Penguin brought the prod closer and closer to the victim's face.

"What are you gonna tell yer father?" He said as the Falcone heir struggled to move his head but there was no use.

"That we're getting out of the weapons business. I promise. I'll make him do it." Alberto said getting Cobblepot to let go of his head and started laughing.

"I see your lips flappin Berty, but they ain't makin the sound I want to hear." Penguin said as he started grazing the cattle prod against Alberto getting him to jump in his seat with each volt going through his body.

Naruto no longer standing this, pulled out one of the pipes and threw it at Penguin's hand knocking the cattle prod out of his grip.

"You idiots better kill him - cos if not, you better 'ope he kills you." Cobblepot demanded. Candy fled to the other side of the room to get out of the man's way for fear of him going after her as well.

"Please don't hurt me!" Alberto pleaded.

Ignoring the two, Naruto threw the other pipe at one of the thugs to the left, hitting him square in the jugular making him cough in pain. Running at Naruto the other two tried to punch him only for him to grab their fists, twisting them in opposing directions breaking their arms. Holding their arms in pain the two let loose whimpers of pain as they were sent flying into the wall with a few kicks to the sternums.

"Don't just stand there! Kill him!" Penguin yelled behind the chair only to get groans of pain from his men.

Dashing to the choking man, the masked intruder smashed his fist into the opposing man's neck, ending his suffering as he pulled his knives from his jacket. Spinning them in his hands he sent them straight into the last two thugs throats, pinning them to the wall as Candy shuddered from the brutal dispatches of the guards. Disregarding the Penguin, Candy and Falcone for the moment Naruto retrieved his blades.

Wiping them clean he put them away, turning his gaze to his target.

"Now hold on, hold on a bloody minute!" Cobblepot said as he brought his hands up and started walking back as the masked assailant moved closer to him. This proved futile as Naruto picked him up and threw him across the room against the mirror, shattering it. From there, he picked Cobblepot up and threw him again to the floor and went up to him before kicking him several times along with bringing his head up and smashing it down to the floor a few times.

"Black Mask killed Commissioner Loeb as well as hired assassins and placed a bounty on Batman's head." Naruto said as he brought Penguin's head up once again before slamming it against the ground and brought his other hand towards one of Cobblepot's arms and twisted it. "Where is he?"

"Ah! I don't keep tabs on every geezer with a grudge you bastard." Penguin said as he was turned around before the masked intruder started punching his face in a few times. He was soon hoisted up in the air with his throat being squeezed.

"You are running out of time Cobblepot. Now I want answers." Naruto said as he punched Cobblepot in the face again.

"Gah… Wait - Wait - Wait… Lacey Towers. There was a murder…" Penguin said with a hoarse voice.

"What about Lacey Towers? What murder?" Naruto asked.

"It was supposed to be his safe house… But Ol' Black Mask - e's got problems of'is own I'd say." Cobblepot said as he tried to swallow and tried to breathe. "Someone broke in there an' - " Was all Penguin said before he plummeted towards the ground and slammed his head knocking himself out.

Naruto felt something tug on his leg until it was too late as he was pulled and ended up slamming Cobblepot's head to the ground and he briefly guessed he was knocked out. Didn't matter now since he was caught in surprise and was being dragged out of the room. He soon grabbed ahold of the door frame and tried to hold on until he saw an orange and black masked assassin kick him in the side, forcing him to let go. Naruto ended upside down and saw the assassin come closer to him, katana in hand about to slit his throat. Lashing out his hand he was able to grab ahold of the sword and ripped it out of the assailant's grip before he used it to cut his leg free from what was keeping him tied up.

Turning himself upright in the air Naruto quickly prepare himself for landing. He tucked and rolled just barely that when he stood up, he saw the masked assassin jump on down from such a height before tucking and rolling.

Once he got up and got a good look at his opponent, the masked assassin widened his one visible eye, seeing who he was facing.

"Minato… Is that you?" The assassin said in surprise, getting Naruto to widen his eyes and wondered why his opponent called him by his father's name. He also wondered why he mistakened him for his father in the first place.

"How do you know my father's name?" Naruto demanded but realized he ended up slipping that bit of information.

"Your father? Wait he had a family?" The assassin asked astonishingly as a lot of thoughts were running through his head right now.

"Answer the question! How do you know him? Also while you're at it, why did you mistake me for him?" Naruto demanded again getting the assassin to regain his bearings.

"Lets just say he wasn't just military. And as for why I mistook him for you well you got his eyes and his hair. I have never met anyone else with that shade of blue before and that shade of blonde hair is always recognizable. With all that, you are a spitting image of him." The assassin said as Naruto soon realized that his hood ended up falling back during the fall showing most of his face with his face mask now shifted down showing part of his whiskers, making him quickly put it back correctly.

"What ever did happen to your father anyways?" The assassin asked since he was curious where Minato is currently at.

"He's been dead for almost 14 years next month. He died serving his country." Naruto stated as a bit of old feelings came up on the reminder.

"I'm sorry to hear that, it was an honor fighting alongside him." The masked assassin said as he soon saw Minato's son tighten his grip on his second sword and this in turn got himself to pull out the other from its holster.

"If you don't mind me asking, what should I call you since I don't want to keep on referring you as 'assassin' the entire time." Naruto said getting the assassin to chuckle a bit as he didn't properly introduce himself before.

"Well kid, my name is Slade Wilson but I go by the name, Deathstroke." Slade said as the two of them started circling each other.

"You know kid, I'm actually surprised seeing you here since I was expecting Batman to be here and fight for his head. But here you are actually doing one hell of a good job fending for yourself here so far, so I give you congrats on that." Deathstroke said as he twirled his sword around since their fight is about to begin.

"Well I have a job to do so I'll have to knock you out and wait for Batman to show up. So we must end this game before it even begins." Slade said as he saw Minato's son take a stance with his second sword. "Now tell me kid, what is your name?"

"My name is Naruto and I'm not playing games, Slade." Naruto said as their fight is about to begin. "Now tell me where I can find Black Mask."

"Like I'll be willing to tell you, Naruto Namikaze." Was all Slade said as he sheathed his sword back in his holster and pulled out his retractable bo staff before he lunged at Naruto.

Naruto held up his sword wielding arm to defend himself as Slade brought down the bo staff on the attack. His arms shuddered from the efforts as Slade brought his staff to bare on the sword in his possession. His strength waning faster as each strike took more of his endurance to block, his body tiring as the toll of the night began to wear thin on him. Blocking another strike his grip was compromised as the sword ended up coming out of his hand and was thrown to the floor. Making fists in slight agitation he adopted a loose stance as he squared off with Slade spinning his bo staff in slow circles.

Slade then swung the staff towards Naruto's side but he blocked it with his arm. Said limb shuddered slightly at the effort, making the blonde glad that he was wearing arm guards right now. If he didn't wear them then his arm could've been rendered useless. His focus came back on again as Slade was swinging the bo staff around to his right prompting Naruto to begin blocking the blows with his arms. Naruto soon was able to catch one end of the staff in his hands and tugged it towards himself getting Slade to follow through and the blonde headbutted him to get the assassin to stagger back a bit.

Naruto using this to his advantage to get his bearings had grabbed some of his homemade smoke bombs and threw them to the ground to give himself some cover.

"Impressive, but not impressive enough Naruto." Slade taunted as he guessed that Minato's son was trying to figure out a way to get the upperhand with some confusion but he knows better. It's a basic tactic in combat, when one approach won't provide favorable results try something new.

Of what he didn't know until it was too late as some spheres were thrown towards him and went off to show that they were flash bombs, temporarily blinding him getting his opponent to lunge at him and start punching and kicking him.

Slade was on the defensive with Naruto putting a lot of force on his punches but his armor was holding up but surprisingly was able to feel it. The shock of the impacts pushing him back as he grunted in slight pain from the blows.

" _How the hell is this kid so strong?"_ Deathstroke thought as he kept on feeling the blows until he decided to fight back. Swinging his bo staff towards Naruto he put extra force in each swing getting his opponent to block them with his arms again. That was until Naruto caught both sides of the bo staff at one moment and jumped into the air to kick Slade's chest sending him back in a slight daze. Following the kick Naruto grabbed Slade and sent him through the air with an over the shoulder throw.

Finding himself in the air Slade tucked and rolled, stabilizing himself as he looked up. Only when did so Naruto was on him unleashing a barrage of punches and kicks in quick succession. Slade retaliated with his swings but the blonde was able to counter each of them now with his fists and pushing the blows off course. Upping the speed of his attacks, Naruto was pushing the one-eyed man back causing him to falter as a rather strong punch landed on his face. Capitalizing on his opponents dazed state Naruto flipped over him and sent a fierce kick into Slade's back. Jerking back from the force Slade soon found himself in a world of pain as punch after punch was landed on him as he twisted around, trying to block the attacks only to get hit more as his mask was hit with the final blow. Staggering back Slade flipped away from his opponent, glaring over to him as his breath seemed to grow more labored.

Having enough of this, Deathstroke threw down a flash bomb towards the ground blinding Naruto as payback from earlier.

" _Damn, should've seen that coming."_ Naruto thought as his instincts told him to turn to the side to block the incoming blow from Slade. It was successful as he raised his arms up just in time to block a series of swings in rapid succession before Naruto was able to grab ahold of the bo staff and headbutted him before punching his armored mask several times. Naruto then jumped in the air for a bit before slamming his fist into the mask, breaking it off and sending it flying away to the far side of the room.

Head whipping back Slade's single eye narrowed on the young man as he brought back his sight on him, irritation clearly written on face as his lips curled in a slight sneer.

Naruto was greeted with the sight of a dark haired man with some grey hairs showing on the sides and several on the top with a full goatee to match. Slade also wore an eyepatch over his right eye to which Naruto figured was why the man's mask only had one eyehole.

Slade let out a grunt as he swung his staff towards Naruto again before his opponent caught it again and kicked his midsection once more to lift him up and throw him over his head. Slade tucked and rolled again but as he got back up once again he was soon assaulted with a series of punches and kicks towards his sides and face.

" _Think it's time to change things up."_ Deathstroke thought as he pulled out his Claw Launcher and aimed it towards Naruto's chest and fired. Sending it careening to him and attaching to his jacket as the edges clamped onto the material

Confused on what Slade did with him Naruto tried to take it off only for it to fire towards one of the fuel canisters above the railings and pull one of them towards his position.

" _SHIT!"_ Naruto yelled in his head as he pulled out one of his knives and cut the line before the canister hit him. Narrowing his eyes on the canister he concentrated on its fast approach, calculating the force of its impact he braced for it and brought his hands around it once it came into his radius of space. Instinctually he threw it towards Slade which surprisingly exploded for some reason.

" _Ok that should not have happened. Unless there were explosives on that then I should be careful with that thing Slade has on him."_ Naruto thought as he took the advantage of Slade staggering and lunged at him to assault him with punches and kicks again. One punch ended up getting Slade to come off the floor and Naruto brought both of his arms in the air and brought it down hard getting his opponent to hit the floor.

Coming back up again, Slade swung his staff again but Naruto ducked and rolled out of the way before assaulting his back with various blows. He turned around to face the blonde but Naruto flipped over him and grabbed onto his shoulder guards and threw him before kicking his falling form.

"ENOUGH!" Slade growled as he threw down a flash bomb as soon as he landed and got back up. Naruto was able to wise up and cover his eyes just at the right moment and 'saw' the attack coming and blocked the swings with his arms in rapid succession before catching the staff again. The blonde soon gave Slade a very hard headbutt before delivering him a fast successions of punches. Recovering from the assault Slade made to attack his opponent.

Lunging at him again Slade brought down his staff only for Naruto to catch the staff and kick his abdomen but this time the staff was pulled away from Slade's hands before Naruto brought it down on his knee breaking it in half, then throwing the two halves to the side once done with the broken weapon.

" _FUCK! What the hell is this made out of!?"_ Naruto yelled in his head since that was not a smart move to pull but he had to ignore the pain for now. He soon saw the katana at his feet and picked it up as he saw Slade pull out his own katana.

Naruto threw his other smoke bombs down to the floor and jumped back into the smoke before he lunged towards the assassin with an upward swing to which Slade blocked.

"You are doing one hell of a good job fending against me Naruto. Hell, the only other person that was able to fight against me on equal terms was your father and that was just during our spars. He would be so proud if he saw you now." Slade said in a gleeful tone. Oh it was so nostalgic on how this is going and he was actually enjoying himself. Nothing brought the blood pumping more than a good fight between two, strong opponents.

"Well thats good to know." Naruto said as he pushed Slade away before he was able to land a kick on the assassin.

Staggering back, Slade was greeted with various swings from his own katana as he blocked them with double the effort now since Naruto is putting much more force into each swing. Their blades smashed and clanged against one another, neither gaining the upper hand as each blow was countered or parried. Their eyes never leaving the others gaze as arcs of silver sparked all around them in a beautiful dance of death.

Seeing as they were in a stalemate of sorts, Slade dropped one of his flash bombs blinding the blond as for a second as he flipped back. Blinking away the dots in his vision Naruto could see the shadow of the killer from above, prompting him to bring his sword up to block the incoming aerial strike. Slashing at the blonde, Slade pushed him back as Naruto was able to block the blows again and again with the sword as they clashed blades stopping the assault momentarily as they pushed against one another in a deadlock of metal. Glares were exchanged as they pushed against one another with all they had, before Naruto broke the deadlock with a headbutt to Slade's face jarring his vision slightly as he tried to shake off the disorientation from the move.

Staggering back Slade pulled out his Claw Launcher and fired it at Naruto once again. Same results occurred with it launching towards another fuel cannister and retracted towards the blond and this in turn got Naruto to cut the line. Once catching it he threw it at Slade making it explode on contact to get the assassin to stagger as Naruto lunged at Slade once more.

Their swings were countered by the other again and again as Naruto knew it was time to wrap things up. Dodging a flurry of slashes Naruto leaned into one swing from Slade, taking a risk and catching the blade with his hand having it cut through his glove and into his flesh. Ignoring the pain in his hand the blonde pulled the sword away from Slade and kicked him towards the wall of the arena with a loud thud.

"It's over Slade." Naruto said as he had both of Slade's katana's in hand with one of them dripping the blonde's blood.

"Is it really?" Slade questioned before Naruto threw one of the blades towards him, making Slade dodge as it struck against the wall and stayed there. That was a distraction to which Slade was greeted with a punch with the unarmed hand before receiving a spin kick towards his face, knocking him out.

"Yeah, it really is." Was all that Naruto said as he stared at Slade's unconscious form. Feeling the pain all over his body after the fight was starting to get to him as all he wanted now was to just sleep. But he had work to do so he turned on his radio and called in Gordon.

"Hey Gordon, are you there? Its Nguyen." Naruto said as he was greeted by his superior's voice.

" _Yeah Nguyen, I'm here. Are you alright? You almost reached the call deadline and we were about to head on over."_ Gordon said in a slightly worried tone but that got a tired chuckle from Naruto.

"Yeah I'm fine, just all so very sore right now. Fighting so many goons and dealing with another one of Black Mask's assassins can do that to ya." Naruto said.

" _Really? Damn I wish I would of known then I would've sent the squad earlier."_ The captain said as he grew more worried as this was going. The risks seemed to be growing by the minute and he was starting to rethink sending just Nguyen out there by himself.

"Like I said, I'm fine. I had to take care of the security systems and lower the access for you guys to get aboard the ship on foot if you couldn't use the copters. Anyways you should bring some extra restraints since this guy is no joke and I don't see anything at all to properly tie him up." The blonde said looking over the unconscious form of Slade.

" _Will do. Did anything else go on while you were exploring the ship?"_ Gordon asked.

"Yes sir, Penguin had captured and tortured Alberto Falcone and both of them are currently in his one office in the upper decks past the theater. Alberto will need medical attention since he is quite beaten up due to who knows how long he has been tortured by the currently unconscious Cobblepot." Naruto said hearing a grunt from the other end.

" _Alright that's good to know. Did you get anything from Penguin on where Black Mask is holding up?"_ Gordon asked.

"Not much sir. He stated that there was a murder at Lacey Towers, which Black Mask had a safehouse located there. Cobblepot said that someone broke in there but couldn't say anymore as the assassin interrupted and fought me." Naruto said in a grave voice.

" _Are you sure on this Nguyen?"_ Gordon asked as he got a quick 'Yes sir' from Naruto. _"Ok I'll send a squad over there to see what went on over there now."_

"Sir, with all due respect I want to see the crime scene. I need to see what's going on over there and give my own opinions to it all." Naruto said since he is already in the case as deep as it is and he might be able to pick up on some facts that the others don't know about. He was taught by the best to investigate such things when he was in Delta so he would have a good grasp on the subject matter.

" _If you are sure on that then I won't stop you. Get over there when you can but if you can't then you need to come back to the precinct as soon as possible. Are we clear?"_ Gordon said.

"Crystal sir. Nguyen over and out." Naruto said as he ended the call right there before he turned his attention to Slade.

"Now what to do with you? I can't just leave you unbound without some measure to keep your threat level to the minimum. Hmm, may as well take your weapons. That's the most I can do within perimeters without neutralizing you completely." Naruto stated to Slade's unconscious form as he rummaged through it and pulled out what was necessary.

Naruto took off Slade's katana holsters and slipped them onto his back with the blades in them before he got what was left of Slade's smoke and flash bombs since he realized he used all of his up during his fight. Naruto then took Slade's guns and ammo off of him before he grabbed onto the Claw Launcher since he thought it was a nifty gadget and he will be needing it to get out of the place. He even fiddled around it and saw that it had a detachable function to work as a grappling gun that he tested this out to shoot it at Slade's armored mask and it reclined bringing the mask to him.

He placed the mask onto Slade's prone form as he made his way towards the exit until Naruto felt he stepped on something. Looking down he saw the retractable bo staff Slade used before Naruto broke it. Picking it up he saw that it actually had a clean break in the middle for both ends, playing around with both pieces as he made his way through the door he realized that the staff actually fit back in place apparently and retracted itself.

"Well this is interesting. Could use this to be fighting sticks if needed." Naruto said as he broke the bo staff up and retracted both ends to put them towards his right side as he made it to where the watery hallway was at. He pulled out the Claw Launcher and switched it to the grappling function so that he can quickly make his way through the rest of the way of the ship.

He soon exited the ship and took a bit of time to get back towards MacGyver as he soon made his way towards Lacey Towers.

Unbeknownst to him, two different sets of eyes were watching him the entire time ever since he came to the docks til now. Both people had their own thoughts and impressions on the masked blonde during his whole ordeal going through 'The Final Offer' and were highly impressed with how he handled things. The two didn't interact at all but soon followed Naruto's car towards Lacey Towers to see what else he has in store towards the assessments. One participant has shown his aptitude, how would the other favor?

 **XXXXXX**

 **J: Damn that took so long to work on and such a headache to boot. Anyways sorry for the delay people but me and KY had to brainstorm and organize things for the chapter and further story events.**

 **KY: (Nods) Yeah, we have the overall picture of it but it has taken quite some time. That and wanted to refine the chapter a bit so it comes out good for you all.**

 **J: Now as you have noticed, Naruto will somewhat go Batman in a way that he gains some gadgets and weapons for story events to build up his arsenal. So far with Origin events he will ONLY be gaining several items that come from Deathstroke and Deathstroke alone from the Claw Launcher/Grappling Gun, the katanas, the retractable bo staff/fighting sticks and the guns for ammo. Eventually Naruto will be a good force to reckon with later on. If you guys complain about Batman not gaining the Claw Launcher then well he will make his own, I mean he has the money why not make his own.**

 **KY: Exactly he has billions of dollars at his disposal, he can shell out the cash for such things to up his crime fighting prowess. Also to address the question of Naruto's abilities, as you have seen he has very good reflexes, well that's a byproduct of training and genetics. Will he have more than his reflexes? Well we did say he would be more than the average man but a man all the same. He is a strong individual so he would hone his mind, body and soul to as much as humanly possible. As to how do I mean by genetics, well you'll just have to find out yourselves in later chapters. I promise it will be interesting.**

 **J: Also of what you guys have noticed there is the slight connection to Minato and Slade of them interacting with each other in the past. This will be a small sample on various connections Naruto and his family have with several others in DC comics and both KY and I will not want to spoil them for now. All just to leave you guys guessing.**

 **KY: That's right, it's going to be an epic, both in length and in epicness, tale to tell and you all will see what we have in store soon. Now with that we bid you farewell, if you have any questions or comments you can PM me if you like or just post it on the Reviews. Now, if you want more then please Favorite, Follow and Review. Later! (Disappears into the shadows while J uses grappling hook to exit)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Maelstroms Mask**

 **(KY appears jumps out of a spaceship and lands onto the ground) Hello to you all, well another chapter is out. (Bows head in apology) I must say though I am sorry for this long wait but a few things happened in my life that… Really shook me, in which I couldn't really function correctly. What with one of my oldest friends suicide, the funeral, emotional shit that comes with that, a HUGE workload thrust upon me by my superiors and my Higher leaving me with all of it while also having a boost in stress causing a rather unhealthy dose of anger and anxiety to mix into it.**

 **(Huffs) I… Just couldn't deal with it all at once, so, I stepped back and dealt with it. Now that I have gotten through the bulk of it and worked it out I believe that I can return to this with a clear head and give you guys what you deserve. A story worth reading. Ah, sorry with my little rant but I just wanted to explain why the whole delay came to be.**

 **Anyways... It's great to see so many new faces to the story. Jebest4781 and I really appreciate all the support you have given us.**

 **(An engine grows louder and louder as it's coming closer. Soon we see Jebest come up in a motorcycle) I agree and I have gotten some messages from people that I usually chat with and they really enjoy the story. One thing that I'm not really happy with is the lack of reviews. Sure we have like 58 at the moment but we had expected more. Sorry on that but reviews and criticisms help out a lot.**

 **Also sorry for your loss and problems Kami so hope things can get better on your end. For the delays on my end was working practically everyday for the past several weeks to month and finishing up my college degree. So damn tired with getting little sleep and feeling ill by the results. Going to be such a pain to get a full time job and find an internship since couldn't get into one sooner.**

 **KY: Thanks man, that means a lot. Don't worry though, as I said I solved most of them so now it's just getting back to the normal grind of everyday life. But yes, such things are the bread and butter of authors on the site. In fact without them then some rather good stories can die due to lack of Reviews and Criticism. So please, when you read take a moment of your time to write a review. It helps us and tells us what we did right and wrong. Thus making it easy for us to improve on what we have and give you guys a better story.**

 **KY: Now I will be addressing some questions that have come up. Did Deathstroke underestimate Naruto? In a way yes, he didn't know what Naruto was capable of as he was only keeping an eye out on Batman so he was surprised to see Naruto thus being unprepared for him and thus being his downfall as he underestimated Naruto's fighting prowess.**

 **KY: Is Lady Shiva connected to Kushina? That is not even remotely true so sorry to disappoint on that. We have a different backstory for Kushina, which is still badass, but it doesn't have anything to do with Lady Shiva.**

 **KY: To me being a fan of Supernatural. No, I am actually not a fan of it just like the car really.**

 **J: For that are wondering who brought up** _ **Baby**_ **from Supernatural is me. I love the show and honestly I enjoy it well and with Season 11 on right now is interesting but that's besides the point now. We just thought the Chevy Impala is a really nice car.**

 **KY: Why this is put in the crossover category when it supposedly is not. Now this is a valid point. Now Naruto is not how he is in Canon. He is changed in his structure but at his core he is the same. He just grew up differently and actually went through combat, not the whole punch someone and they talk about their technique for twenty minutes( I know Anime does this but we are trying to make this more realistic so we won't be having people stop and talk about how their moves work in this fic). No, he killed, he survived and he thrived. As opposed to normal Naruto that never experienced such things at an early age.**

 **KY: Will Naruto fight Batman? Now I won't say he won't as that may happen. What can I say we don't throw out possibilities. Anyway that's enough Notes, let's start the story! (Jumps and flies away.)**

 **J: I agree on the Naruto vs Batman bit. It could happen soon or it could happen later. Things happen that could cause them to duke it out. Anyways like KY said, let's move on with the show. The long awaited 4th chapter of Maelstrom's Mask.**

 **J: Also one last thing before reading, sorry on lateness on not getting this up on Christmas so yeah late Happy Holidays everyone and a Happy New Year.**

 **Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto or Batman**

 **Chapter 4: Lacey Towers Investigation**

 **XXXXXX**

 **2:00 P.M., Thursday, October 30, 1989**

"Is this really alright Onee-san? I mean we just got here ourselves so introducing us as their neighbors may be a tad weird." The preteen said getting a shake of the head from Paula Nguyen.

"No Otou, this is fine. After all you may just get a good friend from this. Maybe even a little girlfriend." The woman smirked seeing the slight blush on her little brother's cheeks. Even after so long she could still make her baby brother blush like he was a little kid.

"O-Onee-saaaaaan…" He groaned, looking away from his giggling sister. Honestly she had waaaaay too much fun teasing him.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

They waited patiently at the door. After a few minutes they didn't hear any stirring from the inside.

"Maybe they're taking a nap or something. That or they don't want to talk to any new neighbors when they just got here a week ago." Naruto said stuffing his hands into his burnt orange jacket pockets. Underneath he wore a pair of blue jeans and white nikes. Just some casual stuff after a hard day of school for him.

"I'm sure they just didn't hear the knocks." Paula waved off, knocking on the door again this time twice as hard as her last attempt. This time however a shuffling was heard behind the door as a man opened the door just enough so that they could see him.

The man was in his early thirties with thinning blond hair, brown hazy eyes and a slight pale complexion with a bit of a gut on him. Wearing a wife beater and a pair of grease stained pants the man seemed to be a little out of it from the way he looked around them and not at them.

"W-what? What'da yah want?!" He asked, giving them a bit of a smell of his breathe. No, smell was not the right word. More like choke, choke on the gaseous cloud of booze that he exhaled into their general area of smelling range. Alcohol was clearly part of his earlier activities that kept him from opening the door on their first attempt to greet their new neighbors.

" _I'm getting the feeling I should've stayed home then come over here with Onee-san."_ The preteen thought as his response to the man was to take a step back in caution.

"Um, hello. My name is-" He glared at Paula smacking the door with his hand.

"I don't give a rat's ass *hick* on what yah name's is. *hick* Like I said before, what'da yah want?" The drunken man demanded as he glared at the two people at his front door.

Naruto glared at the man, "We just came over to greet the new neighbors. There's no need to be an asshole you drunk, fu-"

"Naruto!" Paula cut him off, "There's no need to curse. Be polite, ok?" He gave her a look then the drunk but bit his tongue. He would let his sister talk, he wasn't good with being nice if the man would be an ass first. Then again, Paula has more experience in talking to people like this drunk apparently.

"Anyways, my name is Paula and this here is my little brother Naruto. We are wondering if you and the rest of your family would like to attend this little get together the neighborhood is hosting. Everyone will be there and-"

"Le' me *hick* s'op you right there…. Me and my family, don't care about any 'get together'. So why don't you and your brother hightail it before you meet the business end of my shotgun." This time Paula was the one to glare; her hands clenched into fists as she seemed to shift into a more hostile stance. Yet kept the calm and cool poise that she usually had.

"Sir, we just wanted to invite you. We didn't say anything about you needing to come to the event." She smiled with an all too sweet tone. Acting on his years of interactions with his sister Naruto took a few steps back as he knew that Paula was beginning to become angry.

"W-Well you should've said that in the first place. Now fuck off." He said before he slammed the door in her face with them hearing the door locking up.

"Oh for the love of- The nerve of that man. Who does he think he is doing that? He could've at least be a tad more polite." Paula said as she started to storm off to get over to the next house in the list of invites.

"Onee-san I'm sure he was to drunk for that." Deadpanned Naruto as he walked with her. Only to stop as he heard a feminine cry come from the house. Turning his head he waited a few seconds and the sound repeated itself, this time in more of a whimper.

"What the heck is going on in there.." He muttered to himself. Curious he looked to the house, then back at his still fuming sister as she stomped away clutching the list of invites in a rather tight grip with waves of anger seeming to emanate from her. Then back to the house that had the sound of a girl's crying and whimpers.

Angry sister….

Crying girl….

Angry sister…

Crying girl?...

" _Yeah, no contest. Going with the non-suicidal choice."_ He mused with his curiosity getting the better of him. He looked through the front window but couldn't see a thing, if you didn't count the floor littered with beer cans and some other junk. Naruto soon pulled out his lock picking kit he had gotten for his birthday a few weeks back and decided to put it to good use instead of just testing the stuff out at home. After carefully picking the lock for about a minute he was able to open the front door and entered the residence.

He glanced around and frowned even more of what he is seeing. The home was in bad shape from the interiors appearance but that didn't matter now that he started hearing the whimpering a bit more. He soon tracked the noise through the closest hallway and hugged the wall when he got closer to the source of the noise. Once peering inside, his blood started to boil on the sight.

"P-Please daddy, no more! No more!" Cried the blond preteen girl, her eyes red and tear swept as more kept falling from her baby blue eyes. Ropes held her arms over her head as she layed down on the broken bed with her legs tied to the end of the bed. She was worse for wear however as her only clothes were a bra for her budding bosom and a skirt. Over her alabaster skin were bruises and cuts with weeping wounds as well from the recent beating she has been taking. Standing over her was the man that Paula was mad at and who Naruto would like to strangle at this moment. For in his hand was a bat and in the other was a bottle of whiskey and the bat would make its way to the girl's stomach in a hard arc making her cry out again and again pleading for him to stop.

"Shut it! I'll be done when I feel like it!" The father said in a drunken rage as he took a swig of the remainder of his drink before he threw the empty bottle to the wall making the girl flinch more.

"Please stop! What would mommy say about this?!" The girl pleaded her father to stop but this only made things worse.

"Well m-mommy ain't here. She is dead after spending all my hard earned money on making herself feel better. Shooting herself and whatnot *hick* while I have to suffer for it. Well she's gone now and nothing you can do about it." The man said in a slur. Naruto couldn't catch most of what the man was saying because of him being drunk but he got the general message.

The blonde boy soon peered onto the side and saw a lamp in the hallway and an idea came to mind. He soon took ahold of it and went back into the one room to sneak up on the abusive father. As he crept he also noticed the man starting to wobble a little that this was possibly a good time as any to take action. Once in the room without any of them noticing, Naruto got into position and raised the lamp before bringing it down on the man's head as hard as he could resulting in the lamp shattering and the man falling onto the ground out cold.

"Huh, so that actually works. And people say that it doesn't work outside of TV and movies." Naruto mused before he turned his attention towards the other occupant in the room as he made his way over to her to untie the rope.

"Hey don't worry I got you." He said as he finished untying the last of the knots. After this, the girl latched onto him and started crying getting him to briefly stiffen before he wrapped his arms around her to calm her down.

"Hey it's ok. I'm getting you out of here right now." Naruto said as he stood up and brought his hand towards her.

"Are you able to stand?" He asked as the girl grabbed onto his arm and tried to stand up but fell down a bit before the male blonde caught her. "Easy does it. I guess your legs are pretty numb right now. Well can't wait since your old man could wake up any moment now."

The girl was confused on that until she saw him bring one of his arms under her legs and the other behind her back and carried her like a princess. She couldn't help but blush from this as her savior quickly made his way out of her home. He felt so warm that she couldn't help but snuggle in closer to his frame especially to help protect her modesty.

"Naruto, where the hell were you wandering off like….Who's she?" Paula asked in concern as she saw the injured girl in her little brother's arms.

"You know the last house we stopped at with the drunk inside? Well I stayed behind for a moment and heard some cries and whimpers that made me want to help out. Well long story short, her abusive dad is out cold back at his home and I found her like this with rope tying her down." Naruto said getting Paula to quickly pull out her phone and called the police. The two walked a safe distance away from that residence as they had to exit the block just to be sure. They were soon greeted with the sound of police sirens heading their way with one car continuing its way to the home of the drunk while the other stopped near the retreating threesome.

"Is everything alright here? What happened?" One of the police officers asked as he stepped out of the car to inspect the three people. Paula soon told the officer of what happened earlier at the one residence before Naruto told his side of the story. The police officers nodded before radioing into the other pair that are currently over at the home. They were soon greeted with some sounds of gunfire before one of the officers on the other end called it in of shots fired before they had to shoot the assaulting man down.

The girl's tears seemed to come back as she leaned into Naruto. Hiding her face as she could hear curses from her father in the radio till the sound of gunfire ended it. Naruto held her tight as her tears began to soak through his jacket, whispering soft words of comfort to her as he stroked her back in a calming manner. Her crying soon began to falter as only small sniffles came out.

Walking over to them one of the officers coughed getting their attention, "If you would please come with us we would like to conduct a more in-depth questioning. It will only take a few minutes."

Paula shook her head, "I don't believe this is the best of times. This girl has just went through a lot today so I think it would be best to hold such a thing off for a later date. Right now she needs medical attention, a hot meal and bed rest."

"Now be reasonable miss. We just need-"

"I don't think you heard my Nee-san correctly, so we'll say it again. We will do this _later sir."_ Naruto cut off the man with an edge to his tone. The man turned to the blond with a rather irritated look.

"Son, while that may be true but protocol states that we need to do a more-"

"Please…" They all stopped as the soft voice pulled them out of their talk, "Please…. Not today… I… I don't want to today… I wanna go…" Naruto's eyes softened at the girls broken voice, his heart going out to the girl as he held her close in comfort. A sigh escaped her as she snuggled into his embrace letting his warmth envelope her senses lulling her into a peaceful slumber without her knowledge. She was rather tired after everything happened.

Smiling Naruto couldn't stop himself from softly kissing her hair, getting a sleepy smile from the girl. Sensing that it was a good time as any to leave Paula brought the two kids away from the officer.

While this was going on, Paula glanced at Naruto on how mature he is acting right now in the situation and can't help but smile despite the situation. She couldn't help but find the site adorable of her brother bridal carrying the injured girl with said girl snuggling more in her sleep. This could be good with how closed off Naruto has been lately and this could be a good opportunity for him to open up more.

But for now they need to get back home and take care of the girl who has gone through such an ordeal. They soon made their way to their one story home Paula, Naruto and the slumbering girl went through the front door.

"Put her in my room Otou. I'll clean her up and take a look at her injuries after I get the First Aid kit." She said as he nodded and made his way to his sister's room.

He gently brought the injured girl to the bed and laid her down as best as he could to not wake her up. Pulling away from her after setting her down Naruto stopped as he was pulled back towards the bed. Caught off guard he couldn't stop himself from being dragged into the bed and being forced into the position of a human sized pillow by the girl.

"Please...don't go." The girl said weakly with half lidded eyes. Seeing her look Naruto held her comfortingly.

"Ok." Naruto said as he moved a bit to get comfortable.

"Thank you for saving me." The girl said with a small smile.

"Well what was I supposed to do and leave you alone and kept on getting hurt for who knows how long." He said while he started petting her head to help her relax.

"Still... thanks."

"Oh yeah I never got your name. My name is Naruto, Naruto Nyugen. So then what's yours?." Naruto said to properly introduce himself.

"Harleen, Harleen Quinzell." The blonde girl said.

"Well ain't that a pretty name for a pretty girl." Naruto said in his fox like smile getting Harleen to blush on that compliment.

"Thank you." Harleen said before she drifted off to sleep. With no way out of his position he laid still before he too drifted off to sleep.

Of what the two of them didn't know was that Paula peaked through the door and didn't interrupt since this was a very adorable sight. So with that she closed the door to let the two enjoy their nap.

This is how the relationship between the two blondes had started and throughout the years, it will grow and blossom.

 **XXXXXX**

 **9:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **Near Lacey Towers**

So far with our male blonde, he was in a rush getting over to Lacey Towers all the way from the Penguin's base of operations. He had to be careful due to him swerving a few times due to ice on the road. It wasn't great exactly especially that during the ride over to his next location, the pain was starting to get to him more and more from his fight with Slade. Sure he took some painkillers on the way but wished the ones he took could speed up the process. Naruto was definitely going to get his injuries treated once he gets to the precinct but he just has to wait a bit longer after the investigation at the Towers.

Once he pulled up to the parking lot in front of the towers with several police vehicles already there, he glanced to his passenger and back seats of his car to see what he had pilfered from Slade. Naruto had an odd thought pass through his head to actually strap those items onto his person when he walked right in. Yeah…. that would bring in a ruckus and get officers to aim their weapons towards him thinking that he is one of the assassins. Naruto even thought to just leave them where they were and head inside, but he realized that someone could glance through his windows and see the items and report them in and this would bring in some trouble on his end. So with that, Naruto decided that the best course of action was to put them into his car's trunk and deal with them later.

After putting the items into his trunk, he made his way inside at a careful pace since even though he wore shock and slip resistant boots, his legs were sore from the fight and didn't want to put too much pressure on them. He soon saw several officers inside, no doubt to help guard the perimeter for the investigation and to be sure he was able to pass on through he had taken off his disguise and made his way towards the elevator. One of the officers soon came up to him and stopped him.

"Sir, this is a restricted area. Who are you and why are you here?" The officer said.

"My name is Naruto Nguyen and I'm here on Captain Gordon's behalf for this investigation. If you need proof you can call him and let him know I'm here." Naruto said in an even tone.

"Ok, if you do check out then you're good to proceed. If not then you need to leave sir." Naruto nodded at this as the officer radioed Gordon. Within a minute, the officer came back and had let the blonde proceed and told him which floor to get off of to reach where the investigation was taking place.

As he walked into the apartment where the crime scene took place, he had heard a conversation taking place.

"This is an open and shut case. Penguin murdered Black Mask and his lady friend. I mean we found the bastard's stubby little fingerprints right by the bodies. I honestly will say that I would love to see him squirm outta this one. Fingerprints and two dead bodies. He's 'bout to do some time." Naruto remembered the man being Bullock, a heavyweighted officer with his tone being cocky and arrogant but took pride in his work.

"Yeah 'cept Forecnsics'll take all the credit and I'm the one who found the prints." A male officer said. Nothing special about him.

"And that's why they call it first response. First pickin's on the loot, but none of the glory." A female officer said. Naruto took a good look at her of and got a decent description of her being of hispanic origin with her skin tone and raven black hair.

"Well I wouldn't say that…." Naruto said breaking their conversation and getting their attention. "It's more about paying closer attention to the finer details. Hello there, name's Naruto Nguyen. I radioed Captain Gordon about the murder here and I asked him for me to come on over to help out with this investigation."

"Well it's already too late for you Nguyen, but we already got this all taken care of on the investigation." Bullock said as he crossed his arms.

"Really….So mind filling me in on the details on how this crime was solved?" The blonde asked as he tilted his head a little to the side.

"Eh sure why not." The heavy officer said as he moved over to the bottom of the stairs with the corpse underneath a blanket.

"Well this here is Black Mask, shot dead on the floor and right up there tied up on the chandelier is one of his lady friends dead while hung." Bullock said pointing to the two corpses in their position.

"As you can see with the place torn up suggests that there was a fight with what went on and in the end Black Mask got axed off and Penguin had shot the lady to finish things off." The officer continued getting Naruto to look at the details.

"In the end with what you see with the large mark on the floor indicates that our perp wanted to destroy the evidence before fleeing the scene by using a Molotov cocktail." Bullock said finishing things off.

"Ok good to know but I have several questions if you don't mind me asking. First off why do you assume that Penguin was the perp in the first place?" Naruto questioned.

"Well first off there is this." The one officer said as he pulled out an evidence bag with a cigar in it. "This is a cigar brand that Penguin is known to enjoy having."

"Ok but what else is there to prove that he is the perp? I mean just the cigar can't be the only thing of evidence to pin this on him." Naruto said since this wasn't making any sense at all since when he was interrogating Penguin earlier he said he was there _after_ the murder. If he was indeed the killer, why would he point out the crime scene anyways?

"Well here are his fingerprints right here." The officer pointed out a spot near the male victim. "They are a perfect match for Penguin's."

"Ok first off I think your not doing your job all that well on figuring things out since you probably want to get this done and over with and arrest him on false charges in this case." The blonde said with a slight narrowing of the eyes. He didn't like when people became lazy in such an important line of work, especially on a case of murder.

"That's what I said but no, Bullock here feels a bit too lazy while this guy here is pretty much new to this." The one female officer said.

"Well that's good. By the way, I never got your name miss." Naruto said getting the female officer to remember she didn't meet the blonde before.

"Oh yes, where are my manners. Officer Renee Montoya." Montoya said holding out her hand for Naruto to shake to which he did.

"Well Montoya what do you think was done here?" Naruto questioned since he wanted to see how she would respond on this case.

"Well with the fingerprints they are able to be seen because of Penguin putting his hand on the sooted surface here. This wouldn't be possible at all if he did this during the fire here." She said getting Naruto to nod in approval before he turned his attention to the male victim.

"Well this crime took place days ago. The fire and the exposure to the elements made identifying the victims difficult. The male victim is indeed wearing a black mask, but we won't be able to prove that this man is indeed Black Mask without more analysis. I mean this man here could be one of his goons for all we know." Naruto said as he looked around to find a closet and retrieved a ladder to place it near the female victim.

Once he made his way up he inspected her better before noticing the bullet wound. He turned around and leveled his head to the bullet wound to see that the line of sight was towards the stairs.

"Well the female victim didn't die of the fire, that's for sure." Naruto said getting the others curious.

"What do you mean?" Montoya asked, curious to his insight. They hadn't been able to look further into the female's death as they were more focused on Black Mask's 'murder' and identifying the killer. Higher echelons demanded that Black Mask's murder be solved immediately. Why? Montoya didn't know but if she had a sinking suspicion that it was leading to something big.

"What I mean is that she has a bullet lodged in her heart," Naruto narrowed his eyes at the wound. "The way this hole has formed from the collision of the bullet indicates a low angle of trajectory. Besides if the female victim did die from the fire then she should've had her skin burnt or something in that nature. No the way she was being held with her being shot was tense and firm but not because of rigamortis. The muscles would begin to tighten, stopping the blood flow but the damage was fatal and she died possibly half a minute after being shot."

"You said that the bullet was fired in a low angle right? Then possibly Penguin could've shot her." The one male officer said getting Naruto to shake his head.

"I did say that but please don't think of having Penguin being the perp since this could be someone else. Now let me fill in a bit of detail with Penguin if you had forgotten. He is known of not being the type to handle things himself unless his victims are completely restrained and cannot retaliate." The blonde said before coming down the ladder and going towards the stairs. He soon sat down and pulled out his gun from its holster and aimed it towards the hanged female.

"I think that the person responsible for all of this, for some reason, had wanted to frame Penguin to throw us off of the trail. So he/she could've sat or laid down and shot the female so that the trajectory would be low enough to be roughly Cobblepot's height." Naruto said before he put away his gun before he noticed some faint black streaks on the floor. He whipped off a little bit of it from the side and inspected it.

"Hmm. Seems that whoever was involved in this incident was dragging someone along the floor." Naruto said getting the others to hear this.

"What do you mean?" Montoya asked.

"Well this right here is shoe polish and there is some slight scuffs on the floor. I assume that there was another person in the room asides from the two victims and the perp." Naruto soon laid back down towards the stairs and put his boot near the streak and aimed his gun again towards the female. "Think whoever was being dragged could've shot the female since that would've been the real way on how the height could've worked, but I don't know for now."

Naruto got back up and started looking again before looking towards the opened door towards the balcony.

"I'm just wondering, but was that opened when you guys showed up here." He asked as he pointed towards the balcony door. One of the officers gave a quick 'yes' before the blonde walked over to inspect the door. Once there he saw a bit of white fabric was attached to it and near the door was some broken Christmas ornaments.

"Seems that this was the entry way for the extra person to enter the premises and get his/her clothing ripped off." Naruto then looked towards the floor to see the ruined desk and chair to see a dent on the floor. Upon further inspection he saw that there were traces of blood.

"You were right though Bullock. There was a fight here and could've started when the person came through the balcony would have startled the person sitting by the desk and fought said person. It's not clear who won the fight since it could've been either one of them." Naruto said getting Bullock to feel praised on this while getting the other officers to roll their eyes thinking Bullock's ego was starting to grow.

Naruto soon got an idea and saw several chairs near the windows, so he grabbed one and brought it over to where the broken table was at before sitting down.

"Seems the person who was sitting by the desk could've been the one who shot the Black Mask henchman so I think that could clear that bit up." He said before putting the chair back in its place.

"Was there anything else here that I should know? I don't know how the female victim would have been able to been tied up to the chandelier all that easily." The blonde said getting Montoya to walk near the counter and spotted the impact on the wood.

"Over here, I think I found it." She said getting Naruto to walk on over to see the spot.

"Thanks for that. Now wonder why this wasn't seen earlier." Naruto said getting her to shrug.

Naruto then walked down to see what else he could find before they wrap things up and head over to GCPD. At the corner of his eye he saw a slight glint coming from under a chair that was on the ground. Moving it out of the way he found a cell phone and got in to find that the female victim was sending text messages to her boyfriend.

 _ **T: Hurry I'm scared.**_

 _ **RS: On my way.**_

 _ **T: Who's the Joker?**_

 _ **RS: No one that matters.**_

Once seeing the message thread, he looked up on who the woman was sending the messages towards and it was sent to Roman Sionis….wait.

"Well it seems that we now know who was supposed to be Black Mask. The guy's name is Roman Sionis." Naruto said getting the others their attention on this bit of news.

"Really, Sionis? Are you sure he's Black Mask?" Montoya asked.

"Could be but how else do you think this woman got inside of this safe house in the first place. This girl was important to Black Mask and in the girl's phone had the contact information to Roman Sionis." Naruto pointed out towards the other officers.

"Ok I think this is what happened. Someone killed one of Black Mask's goons several days ago since Black Mask was at Blackgate Prison earlier tonight and I even saw him there. Hmm, the only answers I have raise more questions now: Who is the 'Joker'? Was he the killer here or is he one of the assassins hired by Black Mask? We have a body, an unknown shooter, and an unknown assailant who attacked the shooter." Naruto said getting the others to be curious on those questions as well.

"But still, what did happen here Nguyen? You didn't actually say on what happened." Bullock said getting Naruto to snap out of his train of thought.

"Sorry on that. Anyways we're all thinking that Roman Sionis or Black Mask is dead by being a casualty of a turf war by the Penguin's hands. But I know better than that." Naruto said before he envisioned the scene being played out.

"Someone spooked Sionis' girlfriend. So he sent her to his safe house here...Which was anything but safe." The blonde said seeing the woman's head being smashed against the counter by the unknown assailant with her phone falling over and onto the ground.

"Sionis showed up later, ready for trouble...and he found it ready for him." The goon walked into the safe house and ends up getting shot by the shooter sitting by the desk. "Or so it seemed."

"Let it be known that Black Mask has always been paranoid. Probably why he lasted so damn long. He sent in one of his goons as a decoy giving himself an element of surprise but I think that wasn't enough in his favor." Naruto looked towards the balcony door and Black Mask sneaking through it but then remembered the decorations on the ground. Black Mask would've stepped on it to get the shooter to be startled by Black Mask.

"There was a fight but Sionis lost." Black Mask dived towards the shooter and brawled a bit but the shooter could've gotten the upper hand in some way.

"The shooter didn't hesitate to shoot the decoy, but I think he wanted Sionis alive for some reason. Maybe the shooter was the one that was at Blackgate earlier this evening posing as Black Mask. With Sionis under control, all that remained was to tie up loose ends." Black Mask was soon dragged along the floor and the shooter could've walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out an alcohol bottle and made a Molotov cocktail before throwing it underneath the female victim.

"It wasn't the fire that killed Sionis' girlfriend at all. I'm guessing the shooter could've gotten Sionis to be positioned correctly and aimed the gun towards the victim here and shot her making the incident a worse blow to Black Mask." Black Mask was soon propped up and the shooter moved his arms in position and grabbed ahold of Sionis' weapon with him still holding on and fired killing the woman right there for a slow, agonising death.

"I think that's what happened and it's all theory but it's the best I got." Naruto said getting the others to actually believe the layout of the discussion.

"Well I don't know about you guys but I think we should get forensics to come back here and acquire the rest of the evidence. From there we should head back to GCPD to report all of this." Naruto said as he left the safe house and made his way to the lobby with the others followed after him to do what he had suggested.

If they stayed a little longer, they could've seen two figures entering the safe house from the balcony doorway and each had their own thoughts on what their impressions on the blonde was. They were impressed with how Naruto figured things out in this little mystery and now their assessments were complete. They will now just need to finish up this night and see how things go on from there with Naruto and the infamous Batman. With the latter, one of them needs their own assessment with the Dark Knight since the other was more interested in the blonde.

 **XXXXXX**

 **10:00 p.m., Tuesday, December 24, 2000**

 **GCPD**

It took a bit of time to get back to the GCPD due to getting forensics to come back to the crime scene and get the remaining evidence recorded since some of them were being absent minded on not recording all of the evidence. From there the roads were still not that great so took some time on the ride over to GCPD but they eventually made it back. Naruto was no longer feeling sore due to not going through any strenuous action back at Lacey Towers and the cold somewhat helped but not that much even though the pain killers really kicked in when he drove back. Of course once he properly gives his reports to Gordon, he'll need to get a proper check up since he didn't know if he actually broke something during his fight with Slade. Wouldn't be the first time he broke a bone in a fight without realising it.

Once making his way inside of the precinct, he moved to Gordon's office to report to him but was able to see him close by on the upper level talking to a lot of other officers. On what he could guess is to plan for the upcoming events for the night.

"I know everyone's still in shock over what happened to Commissioner Loeb, but we need to stay focused on our primary targets for tonight. So far Waylon Jones, or Killer Croc as he is commonly known, has been fully processed along with Slade Wilson, otherwise known as Deathstroke. We got a ways to go before sunrise to finish this all up. There's eight assassins in town tonight with one of them already in custody. From the info we've been gathering, they are among the most dangerous criminals on record - period. After interrogating Waylon Jones, we've learned that they're all competing for a huge bounty which Black Mask has offered for the head of the Batman." Gordon had said getting murmurs to break out amongst the crowd of cops, detectives and SWAT members.

"Alright cut the chatter people. Our goal is to ensure order in this city. So our number one priority becomes bringing in the Batman BEFORE these assassins get to him. Now. The closer it gets to morning, the more desperate the assassins will grow - and if he's still out there - the more damage they'll cause to the city, as they try to find or attract him. Alright dismissed."

With the other officers making their way doing their own thing, Naruto headed over to Gordon to report in.

"Hold it!" A hand grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back rather forcefully. Turning around on instinct his fist flew in retaliation only for it to stop a few inches from his acquaintances face. Her glare seemed to intensify due to the quick act of violence to her person.

"Ah, sorry Dr. Thompkins. Reflexive action took over." Taking a step back he crossed his arms.

The doctor only continued to glare.

"What?" He questioned still getting cold brown eyes glaring at his person. The doctor wasn't all that frosty most of the time but it seemed he has gained a bit of her ire this night. Why he doesn't know but she would not seem to relent in her look.

"You're coming with me." Her hand lashed out, grabbing his jacket and pulling him with her despite his protest.

"Can't this wait after I-"

"No it cannot. You're due for a check up and I am not taking no for an answer." His jaw clenched as he looked back to Gordon still talking to his superiors and sighed.

" _Well, I was going to get checked anyway. Might as well get it over with and convene with the Captain later."_ Naruto thought as Dr. Thompkins dragged him to her office.

"Hmm, a few bruises, stressed bone breaks in the forearms but that will heal in due time. You always were a fast healer. Still I would advise you to be more careful as it seems you have been picking fights with rather dangerous people lately." The woman said with a rather dry bedside manner.

"I'll be fine Doctor, besides when have I picked fights? The fights just happen whether I want it or not." Naruto shrugged putting his shirt and jacket back on.

She nodded, "True, but you can't help but add a bit of fuel to that fire can you?"

"I will not agree nor disagree with that Doctor."

"Well, just make sure to come back in a presentable manner. You have Harleen in stitches with how much she worries about you. Though if you worry her anymore she'll probably break your arms." He chuckled at that seeing as his friend, when angry or frustrated enough, would break the instigators limbs for their actions. Harley was a gentlewoman, don't get him wrong, but she was an entirely different person when she became violent. She had a slight streak of brutality once she became violent. The last time someone encouraged her wrath she broke both their legs and arms and left them to wallow in pain.

All because they just wouldn't stop their incessant jabs at her blood family's situation.

"Don't need to tell me twice Doctor. Now if you excuse me I have to get back to work." Waving over his shoulder he walked out of the office and made his way to his boss's office. Knocking on the door first he could hear his boss as well as a young girl's voice arguing.

"He's out there catching the criminals that you let walk free!" A young redhead girl said to Gordon.

"He's the worst kind of criminal. The kind who thinks their actions are justified - who acts completely outside of the system." Gordon said but this got the girl to get fed up with his attitude on the vigilante.

"Well the system is broken dad." She said before storming out of his office.

"Barbara! Wait." Gordon said as he tried to reach out to her before feeling a hand on his shoulder.

"You should probably give her some space Gordon. I know how it's like dealing with a child getting into their rebellious stage in life. Right now she just needs to cool off." Naruto said as Gordon brought his hand to his forehead to massage it a little.

"From what I know from Barbara she is just worried about me ever since her mother passed away and had to go through a lot and mature too soon for her age. I know she means well but she needs to know from my point of view that I have to follow the law so that things can at least go right for now. With that I have to see the Batman as someone that is against it and working outside of it." Gordon said as he walked over to his desk and pulled out some aspirins to help relieve himself of his coming headaches.

"So how do you deal with it really since you said that you know how to deal with a rebellious child?" Gordon said in slight curiosity.

"Well sir I have a niece who is just getting into that stage in her young life and whenever I visit I can tell it's just itching to rebel and whatnot. Then again it doesn't help whenever her father shows up and when that happens it only makes it worse. So I do what I can to keep her from getting too rambunctious but it's no use really." Naruto said as he chuckled at the several times he had to keep Jade from causing too much mayhem at home.

"So there's no way to curb it.." Gordon sighed with his subordinate shrugging his shoulders.

"Kids will do as they please from what I have seen. It's up to their role models, us, to guide them and help curb their more self destructive behavior. For Barbara she isn't a bad kid, she just has a strong opinion on how things work and isn't afraid to voice her opinion." The blonde said getting a laugh from his boss.

"That's an understatement. Once she gets an idea in her head she won't be swayed to change her outlook on it no matter how much anyone tries. She's stubborn like that. I swear she's so much like her mother it's scary." Gordon smiled softly at the thought of Barbara being like her mother was when she was still alive. In a way it gave him a bit of pride to see her talk back to him to prove her point. On the other hand it gave him a pang of sadness as he could practically see his late wife coaxing her to talk back to him to prove that her little girl was right.

"Was she really that stubborn?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh trust me she was. Once when we were talking to our landlord, around the time when Barbara was born, he started getting rather upset with the contract we agreed on. She was still on the hormones and started lashing out on him on the rent and well long story short it got cut down quite a lot. I swear I never met any other woman that can haggle like her and Barbara practically inherited that from her mother." Gordon said as he rubbed his temples.

"She sounds like an interesting woman. Makes me wish I could of met her." Naruto chuckled getting a small smile from his captain.

"Yeah… She was... " Gordon shook his head. "But she's not the reason you're here, you're here for business." Taking a seat the man gestured for his subordinate to take a seat.

The blonde sat down, "Yes, of course. Well I will start my debrief. After leaving you and the chopper I proceeded to find LeBlanc at Jezebel Plaza. Currently he was dealing in advanced arms and gear, just like the drone said."

Gordon nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"After taking care of his help I took LeBlanc and questioned him on where I could find Oswald Cobblepot, A.K.A. the Penguin."

"Seemed more like a rather intense questioning when we found LeBlanc, Nguyen." Gordon noted, remembering the state the perp was in when they finally got to him. Broken jaw, a few ribs broken and a face that seemed to be run over by a truck with how mangled he was.

"Apologies, Sir. But I don't really have the luxury of being polite to criminals to get information tonight."

"I know that Nguyen, I was just making an observation. Whatever helps us tonight get to Black Mask is welcome. Just remember to be careful on how you do it, not everyone is as understanding as me when it comes to this."

Naruto nodded, "Of course. Now, after my questioning of LeBlanc I was unable to get the information directly from him. But I was able to discern the Penguins location from LeBlanc's phone, seems he left his boss's address without any type of code lock or security. Anyways, afterwards I left him and his men to the department to find and went to the docks to find the Penguin in his boat, The Final Offer."

"Which from your words on the radio sounded heavily guarded." Gordon said.

"Yes, yes it was. But with careful planning and a few well placed bullets quite a few of them were taken care of giving me the clear path to the Penguin. Unfortunately, a man known as the Electrocutioner escaped after I easily fought him and soundly rendered him unconscious. No doubt he escaped to give Black Mask a word of my involvement at _The Final Offer_." He said getting a hum from his superior.

"I'm surprised you didn't question him on the location of his employer." Naruto's brow gave a slight twitch in aggravation at that to which Gordon saw.

"Oh? You did try to question him then." Gordon sighed, "I'm assuming from your silence he didn't really give anything away."

"Well to be honest Sir, he was being rather arrogant. So seeing that I wouldn't find anything out from him I proceeded to kick him in the jaw so hard that he was soundly rendered unconscious to the world….so...yeah." Naruto said as he rubbed the back of his head, his eye still twitching slightly at the reflection of his loss of professionalism. Though to be fair the man had it coming.

He was lucky he didn't place a bullet between his eyes for his idiocy.

"Ok then. I can understand that bit of notion. 'Sigh' Most interrogations of sorts tend to be a bit rough, given the case who you fought, but what happened from there?" Gordon said as he pulled out a water bottle and took a swig out of it from being parched.

"From there, many of Penguin's men started coming at me and I had to fend them off until they stopped coming. In some cases I had to render some of them permanently ineffective as their numbers were rather worrisome."

"So you killed a few of them, right, go on.."

"Following the brawl with the Penguins cronies I proceeded to lock one of Penguin's female lackies in a cell, I believe her name was Tracey if I heard her right."

"Yes, she was a rather mouthy one when we locked her up in her cell at the women's section of Blackgate. Not only that but was she very rowdy and tried to get out of custody a few times but one of our female officers got her quiet." The captain said with a slight grin before it went back down.

"Good to know, she was rather… Unhelpful when I encountered her sicking her men on me." Stopping Naruto took a bottle of water off the desk. After taking a few gulps he continued.

"Once that was done I allowed our boys access, via the security console, onto the boat and made my way to the casino on the Final Offer to which the Penguin was located. There I encountered a few more men and finally found the Penguin, as well as another of his female helpers by the name of Candy, torturing the heir to the Falcone crime family Alberto Falcone. From what I heard he was trying to get Alberto to urge his father to stop dealing weapons in the Black Market and thus eliminate a potential rival in the criminal underworld when it comes to arms dealings."

"Not that surprising Cobblepot would do such a thing to gain more business." Gordon muttered briefly before motioning the blonde to continue.

"I soon intervened seeing Alberto's torture had run its course. Quickly making mincemeat out of the guards I took Penguin and began to question him on the location of Black Mask. A few bruises and cracked teeth later he gave me a rather odd piece of information regarding Lacey Towers, Black Mask's safe. Apparently someone broke in and attempted to kill Black Mask."

"Well that's interesting to hear but I'll want to hear or read about that bit later." The captain said urging Naruto to continue with his report.

"Well I couldn't get anything else out from him since one of the assassin's came and intervened with the effect of Penguin being knocked out before I had to fight said assassin."

"Deathstroke, A. K. A., Slade Wilson." Gordon frowned. It wasn't every day you meet one of the deadliest assassins in the world and even more so for you to fight one and live.

"Correct, though I wasn't his target as he was laying in wait for Batman." He shook his head, "It didn't matter though as after a few brief words we engaged in a fight that almost had me visiting Hell early. Still it was a close fight and I was only able to win because he underestimated me."

"How do you figure? You won, I know anyone in the department would be bragging about this to anyone in the city." Gordon questioned as Naruto steepled his fingers together.

"Remember he was expecting to fight Batman but ended up fighting me so he didn't consider me much of a challenge." Naruto said as he partially told the truth. He didn't want to tell Gordon his real connection to Slade since that would cause a bit more problems than needed.

" _The last thing I need is for the Board to know that my dad was somehow linked to a criminal like Deathstroke. They already have a bone to pick with me as it is, Kami knows why."_ The blonde thought.

From the time he has become a part of the GCPD the Board of Gotham Law Enforcement seemed to always have one of their representatives check on him. Either by a report one of his superiors wrote or by a blatant representative asking him questions on how he found working for the department as one of the cogs in the machine. It was rather odd for them to meddle with him as he was, to everyone else, just another one of the cops if only for his rather impressive marks in the Academy.

Though to the BGLE it seems he may be something more...

Gordon hummed in thought to his words, "You have a point….." Motioning for him to continue Naruto obliged.

"After narrowly defeating Deathstroke I tied him up and made my way to Lacey Towers. There I would be able to gain a larger perspective on the case at hand."

"Good to know on that but when my men arrived to apprehend Slade, a lot of his equipment was missing. Mind telling me where they now?"

"It-"

BAM

The door slammed open showing a rather angry looking women in business wear.

"Captain Gordon, was it not made apparent that I was to debrief Officer Nguyen? He is to be observed and handled with the utmost care as per order of the GBLE." Turning to his superior Naruto gave him a questioning look.

Gordon sighed, "Nguyen, let me introduce GBLE representative Martha Hirudo. She came here. unannounced," He gave a pointed look to Hirudo getting a huff from her. "And demanded to meet and 'debrief' you." He said the word debrief as if it meant interrogate from how Naruto heard it.

Staving a mental groan of annoyance the blonde turned his eyes to the woman. She was a rather bookish middle aged, skinny woman with greyed hair and thick glasses wrapped up in a black business suit and skirt with heels.

"So, what can I do for you this evening ma'am?" Naruto asked while holding back a groan since this might complicate matters for the night.

Fortunately before she could say a word, it seemed the universe was on his side.

Because that's when the alarms began to sound….all over the building.

"What now?!" Gordon said as he reached to his radio.

"This is Captain Gordon. What the hell is going on?!"

"Saved by the bell." Naruto muttered though Hirudo seemed to briefly hear him giving him a rather venomous glare.

"Excuse me?!" She hissed.

" _Batman! Batman's breaking into the building!"_ Gordon narrowed his eyes as he grit his teeth in anger.

"I want all personnel looking for that costumed vigilante! No room is to be left unsearched, no vent unchecked. I want him brought in for questioning!" He ordered cutting the connection on the radio.

Seeing that as his cue to leave Naruto made his way out of the room without seeing Ms Hirudo still glaring at him. Not that it mattered now...

Since it was time to catch a Bat.

 **XXXXXX**

 **KY: Alright another chapter for you guys done. Now I know this chapter was less action packed but this was meant to be more of a lull in the action and a bit of a recovery and set up for future events.**

 **J: If you guys know what is about to happen next then you would understand since this is a breather of sorts. Not only that but we couldn't do much due to not working on this chapter very much for so long.**

 **KY: Indeed, things are about to get crazy. Also would like to say the next to be updated is FoW. I know it has been a while so don't worry people it will be updated so don't worry. Til next time guys, later! (Both disappear in a swarm of bats.)**


End file.
